Florida and Texas governors face business backlash over anti-LGBTQ moves

Florida and Texas governors are fighting big business as some companies object to new measures targeting LGBTQ rights in both states.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Walt Disney Co. “woke up” after his silent objection to a bill that would ban talking in the classroom about sexual orientation and gender identity with kindergarten children in third grade. The Republican directed his anger against one of the largest businessmen in his state after Disney CEO Bob Chapek reversed course and publicly spoke out against the measure at his company’s annual meeting with shareholders.

Disney opposed the bill from the beginning, but thought it would be better to oppose it backstage, according to Chapek, who said he called on DeSantis to express “concern that if the legislation became law, it would be could be used to unjustly attack gays, lesbians, children and non-binary and transgender families. ” Disney will review how it addresses advocacy and “political donation in Florida and beyond,” Chapek added.

The measure “Parental rights in education”, mocked by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, passed the Florida Senate earlier this week and is expected to be signed by DeSantis, who supports the bill.

“We will make sure that parents can send their children to daycare without some of these things being injected into the school curriculum,” DeSantis told a news conference Monday.

Described as “hateful” by President Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the bill prompted dozens of Florida high schools and high schools to rule on the bill.

Fight for gender

Another fight for LGBTQ rights is being played in Texas. Companies such as Apple, Alphabet, Johnson & Johnson, Macy’s and REI have signed an announcement condemning an order by Governor Greg Abbott to equate gender-based health care for transgender teens with child abuse. “Discrimination is bad for business,” the digital ad and full-page ad told the Dallas Morning News on Friday.

The Republican governor’s Feb. 22 directive requires teachers and the medical profession to report parents to child protection services to help their children receive treatments such as drugs and hormones that suppress puberty. Treatments to help align adolescents’ bodies with their gender identities have the support of major medical groups, including the American Medical Association.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a tweet on Thursday that he is “deeply concerned about laws being enacted across our country, especially those focused on our vulnerable youth.”

Business offerings to pressure states are not unprecedented. Under former CEO Bob Iger, Disney sometimes intervened in state law, threatening to stop filming in Georgia, for example. if the restrictive abortion bill became law.

And North Carolina faced a corporate protest after state lawmakers passed a measure in 2016 requiring people to use public restrooms that aligned with the gender listed on their birth certificates.

However, as DeSantis demonstrated in his dismissal from Disney, these clashes can play both ways. Target’s policy of allowing transgender customers and employees to use the bathroom of their choice provoked disapproval from Texas officials at the time. who asked how he would protect the retailer “Women and children of those who would use the coverage of Target’s bathing policy for nefarious purposes.”

Florida will also miss a technology and media conference scheduled for next year in Miami due to tech journalist Kara Swisher calls “An unnecessary law that addresses a non-issue designed to mask homophobia with an emotional blanket of parental rights.” Swisher, who is openly gay and co-hosts the Vox Media Pivot podcast, tagged Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, also gay, tweeting that he would get in touch.