Blackburn slams Disney for opposing Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

Sen. Marsha Blackburn blasted Disney for speaking out about Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, arguing that the entertainment company’s involvement indicated how “woke left extremists” are enlisting corporations to pursue their progressive ideas. 

“People go there to walk the yellow brick road and have a day in fantasyland. They’re not going there to walk on eggshells,” Blackburn told host John Catsimatidis on his AM 770 radio show, referring to Disney World in Orlando.

“I think that it is something that you have to look at and say this is how the woke left extremists are using corporations to push their agenda,” the Republican Tennessee senator continued in the interview that aired Sunday.

Initially, Bob Chapek, CEO at Disney, did not address the matter when the Florida legislature passed the bill, which bans teachers from discussing LGTBQ topics with students until after third grade and dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

But Chapek’s silence was met with outrage from Disney employees and LGBTQ groups. 

Disney then came out firmly against the bill a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed it last week.

The entertainment giant also recently eliminated the use of gendered pronouns, like “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” while a top executive has vowed to make racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community account for more of Disney’s regular characters.

Blackburn said Disney, and other corporations, should gauge public sentiment about how parents are standing up to “out-of-control government.”

She pointed to recent examples of that in Virginia — where Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected as governor amid a heated dispute over education issues, including critical race theory — and in San Francisco, where three school board members were booted from office over their progressive proposals.

“Parents do not want ideology forced on their children,” she said. “They want their children to be educated, not indoctrinated. And one would think that this is something that they would finally get if they would finally have an understanding.”