Free Republic

The White House Keeps Twisting the Truth About FloridaPresident Biden and his press secretary are trafficking in proven falsehoods to score political points against Ron DeSantis.In late April 2022, the White House named Nina Jankowicz—who believed in the Steele dossier and considered the Hunter Biden laptop story Russian disinformation—its disinformation czar. But the Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board that Jankowicz headed lasted only four months; Jankowicz herself resigned after just three weeks. A year later, it’s hard to ignore the irony that a White House that created an office allegedly to combat disinformation keeps trafficking in it to...

Lawyers for Governor Ron DeSantis’ Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board found that Disney’s agreements with the former Reedy Creek Improvement District were null and void as they did not follow state law requirements.The Oversight Board plans to consider a resolution voiding the agreements on April 26. Disney failed to comply with statutory notice requirements, such as notifying affected property owners by mail of the new development agreement and attempting to confer governmental powers to a private business.The new Oversight Board exerted their control by firing the planning and zoning board, appointing themselves in its place, and approving a resolution declaring...

Florida Republican Gov. DeSantis has been foiled by Disney once again. The new board DeSantis appointed to oversee the company’s Orlando theme parks has discovered a new wrinkle in its plans. The board’s chairman said Wednesday that another “11th hour agreement” was signed before the board took over that allows Disney to set its own utility rates for its resorts through 2032. By that time, DeSantis, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection in 2026, will be long gone. It’s the latest development in the ever-expanding culture war between DeSantis and Disney executives, who angered the governor last year...

The first round of the “Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis v. The Walt Disney Company” fight, held last spring, ended in a clear DeSantis victory and Disney defeat. Following Disney’s vocal opposition to Florida’s commonsense Parental Rights in Education Act, misleadingly dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Florida passed a law to abolish the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which in 1967 incentivized Disney’s initial planting of a flag in Central Florida by giving the corporation unparalleled government-like powers over basic municipal services such as zoning, building codes, and waste treatment. Disney thus paid the price for coming out in favor...

Educators in all Florida public schools for all grave levels will now be banned from teaching students about gender identity and sexual orientation in a sweeping move announced by Ron DeSantis's board of education on Wednesday. The move marks a huge expansion of the The Parental Rights in Education law - also dubbed the 'Don't Say Gay' bill by critics - which was signed last year by the governor and sparked a firestorm across the country. Critics of the policy claim it could harm children who identify as gay and transgender. While the previous version of the law prohibited instruction...

A group of right-wing protesters and conspiracy theorists gathered outside Disneyland's entrance in California on Wednesday to rally against "grooming," following weeks of similar rallies against Disney — the latest in a growing culture war trend of conservatives accusing opponents of corrupting children. Prominent republicans and far-right influencers have spent weeks baselessly accusing Disney of grooming children after the company withdrew its support from Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill, which will restrict public school instructors from talking to K-3 students about "sexual identity and gender orientation." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in late March. Grooming,...

Women's tennis legend Billie Jean King was in Delray Beach, Florida, on Friday for the Billie Jean Cup qualifier, and discussed more than just the match. During a 30-minute press conference, the 79-year-old King criticized Florida’s "Parental Rights in Education" law, also known as the "Don’t Say Gay" law by its critics. The bill was signed into law in March 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in kindergarten through third grade.

The newly ousted chairman of Disney-owned Marvel Entertainment said he once contacted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to express his support for the Republican in his public feud with the Mouse House. Ike Perlmutter, the 80-year-old billionaire executive who was ousted in the first wave of Disney’s recent layoffs, claims he was fired by the company due to his combative relationship with top brass. The notoriously outspoken Perlmutter also revealed that he called DeSantis to voice his disagreement with Disney’s decision last year to publicly lobby against the DeSantis-backed Parental Rights in Education law, branded by critics as the “Don’t Say...

President Donald Trump eviscerated Governor Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., in his ongoing battle against Disney and its Magic Kingdom in Orlando. “Ron DeSanctimonious totally caved in his public relations inspired battle with Disney,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “That’s the only reason he went after them in the first place, to show Mr. Tough Guy. Disney maintained complete exemption from property & sales tax, tax-free bonds, and their incredible fast track permitting.”As reported by RSBN, Gov. DeSantis recently signed legislation in February (HB 9B) that ended Walt Disney World’s self-governing status by terminating the corporate kingdom’s special privileges in...

Gov. Maura Healey tore into Ron DeSantis, saying the Florida leader’s stances on education have been “really shameful,” particularly his controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, which the nation’s first openly-lesbian governor described as nonsense. In a Thursday interview on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, Healey said she would support Democrat President Joe Biden if he were to run for another term. She also characterized Gov. DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, as someone who wants to take the country “backwards.” “The idea of punishing, you know, punishing people for some of the things that he talks about,” Healey said. “This...

The bill would limit discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity. A new Missouri bill takes Florida's controversial Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, even further. The bill says that "no nurse, counselor, teacher, principal, contracted personnel, or other administrative official at a public or charter school shall discuss gender identity or sexual orientation with a minor student" unless they're a licensed mental health care provider and have a guardian's permission. The Missouri bill goes further than the Florida law, which restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through kindergarten to grade 3,...

College students across the state of Florida walked out of their classrooms on 23 February to protest Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration’s agenda targeting LGBT+ people in the state and on its campuses, including a requirement for state universities to submit information about students and other patients who sought gender-affirming care at their facilities. The statewide walkout demanded that the administration end its “attacks” against LGBT+ students and staff at Florida universities, which the governor’s opponents have linked to his sweeping agenda to eliminate access to gender transition healthcare and transform public education in the state. Protests followed the...

Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) telling his state “what you can and can’t do” in their education system “sounds like big government and authoritarian.” In a press conference, DeSantis said, “Go read books like ‘Genderqueer’ and see what’s in there. It’s inappropriate. So we’ve armed parents to object to that and having sure they’re having education and not indoctrination.”

A viral hoax showing a supposedly cleaned-out library as a result of a new Florida law banning explicit material in schools has resulted in a teacher being fired.Brian Covey, who was a substitute teacher for Duval County Public Schools (Jacksonville area), was told his services would no longer be needed after he posted a video making it seem as if the Mandarin Middle School library had been emptied out. When questioned about the situation at the time, Gov. Ron DeSantis denounced it as a fake narrative, noting that nothing in the law required any school to take any such action.Apparently,...

There’s evidence of media bias everywhere, but in this particular case I’d like to focus on a game the press plays with the names of legislation/laws in their reporting about Republican initiatives: "Critics call" — JWF (@JammieWF) February 11, 2023 The biggest example of that lately has been Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last year. The Left dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” law and the media dutifully fell in line. The Associated Press is still playing that game: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will soon take control of Walt Disney World's self-governing...

The legal battle over a Florida law that restricts classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation is pitting red states against blue states. Republican attorneys general of 14 states last week sought approval to file a brief supporting Florida in a fight about the new law. That came after Democratic attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia this summer filed a brief supporting the bill’s challengers...

Disney has faced a series of problems with its theme parks and films, as well as its Disney+ streaming service that has exclusive rights to Disney movies and TV shows. Axios reported that Disney has lost over $4 billion from its streaming service during Fiscal Year 2022. Disney’s customers have reported widespread dissatisfaction over Disney’s rising prices and issues with park cleanliness and rides malfunctioning, contributing to its falling stock prices. Disney’s stock has lost 41% of its value on the year, an alarming dip for investors who have repeatedly raised concerns about the company’s business model. Disney’s senior executives...

The company that once defined family entertainment is going from media giant to epic failure, suffering over $1.4 billion in streaming losses and a stock drop of around 39% for the year. And, it would appear that these financial declines are inevitably leading to employee layoffs.Disney has put a freeze on hiring, it is limited employee travel and is also reviewing workers for efficiency with plans to introduce cuts as a means to make the company "more nimble." CEO Bob Chapek noted in a leaked memo to senior staff:"As we work through this evaluation process, we will look at every...

The New Jersey branch of the National Education Association is running an advertisement condemning concerned mothers and fathers as 'extremists.'(LifeSiteNews) — One of the strange and unintended effects of the Covid lockdowns was that for the first time many parents were exposed to what educators were teaching their kids. Many were shocked, and the resulting backlash torqued an already-growing parental rights movement rooted in opposition to LGBT indoctrination and Critical Race Theory (CRT). At first, progressives insisted that parents, if not lying, were simply following for the fevered conspiracy theories of raving right-wing pundits. Then along came activists like Christopher...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for doctors who perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors to be sued at a Wednesday press conference. “They talk about these very young kids getting gender-affirming care,” DeSantis said, who used air quotes while using the phrase. “What they don’t tell you what that is is that they are giving very young girls double mastectomies, they want to castrate these young boys — that’s wrong.” Several of DeSantis’ press reps have questioned the “gender-affirming care” phrase in recent months, arguing that it doesn’t specify the procedures being performed in some cases. And in April, Florida...