Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Disney during a Fox News interview on Tuesday night over their opposition to a bill that was signed into law that is intended to return power to parents to determine when and how their children should learn about sexual topics.
“Well, this bill is about providing protections so that they know they can send their young kids to school without them being sexualized, without a school telling a young girl, for example, that she may really be a boy. And if schools are trying to do things that impact the health and well-being of the kids and they’re — they’re undertaking certain services, that parents have a right to know that and provide consent for it,” DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “So, this is a real bill that empowers parents, it protects our kids. And for a company like Disney to say that this bill should have never passed — first of all, Tucker, they weren’t saying anything when it was going through the House. They only started doing this because the mob, the woke mob came after them.”
“But put that aside,” DeSantis continued, “for them to say that them as a California-based company are going to work to take those California values and overturn a law that was duly enacted and, as you said, supported by a strong majority of Floridians, they don’t run this state. They will never run this state as long as I’m governor.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Ron DeSantis is the governor of the state of Florida. We’re glad to have him joining us tonight.
Governor, thanks so much for coming on.
I have to say, you’re one of the only politicians I’ve ever seen — so many Republican governors in red states really are some of the weakest people in the country, have caved. You have not caved. You’ve really tried to explain what this bill is about.
If you’ll just do it quickly for us once again, what is this bill?
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Well, this bill is about providing protections so that they know they can send their young kids to school without them being sexualized, without a school telling a young girl, for example, that she may really be a boy. And if schools are trying to do things that impact the health and well-being of the kids and they’re — they’re undertaking certain services, that parents have a right to know that and provide consent for it.
So, this is a real bill that empowers parents, that protects our kids. And for a company like Disney to say that this bill should have never passed — first of all, Tucker, they weren’t saying anything when it was going through the House. They only started doing it because the mob, the woke mob came after them.
But put that aside. For them to say that them as a California-based company are going to work to take those California values and overturn a law that was duly enacted and, as you said, supported by a strong majority of Floridians, they don’t run this state. They will never run this state as long as I’m governor.
CARLSON: Yeah, they haven’t improved Orlando I noticed. Why don’t they throw some money into downtown Orlando and help people who live there?
I have to ask you this since we’re at the topic of Disney, journalist Chris Rufo who’s really done a lot, has just obtained a video of all hands meeting at Disney. The meeting was in response to the legislation you signed in Florida.
Here is Disney corporate president Karey Burke. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREY BURKE, DISNEY CORPORATE PRESIDENT: I’m here as a mother of two queer children, actually, one transgendered child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader. We have many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories and yet we don’t have enough leads, a narrative in which gay characters just — just get to be characters and not have to be about gay stories.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So, I don’t understand why an entertainment company that makes animated movies gets to control legislation in your state.
DESANTIS: Well, and especially, Tucker, you’ve got to wonder like, why is the hill to die on to have transgenderism injected into kindergarten classrooms, or woke gender ideology injected into second grade classrooms? Why is that the hill to die on?
Meanwhile, if we had done a bill that prohibited talking about the abuse of Uighurs in China, Disney would’ve supported that legislation because they don’t want to say a word about that.
So, it’s just an odd manifestation of their corporate values that they actually do Disney cruises, Tucker, to the nation of Dominica, which criminalizes homosexuality. So, they’re fine doing that and lining their pockets. They’re fine lining their pockets from the CCP and all the atrocities that go on there.
But it’s those kindergartners in Florida that they really want to have transgenderism as part of their core curriculum in school.
CARLSON: And talking to kids about their genitals. Like I thought that was — I’m not a lawyer. I thought that would be a crime, right? No, or should be?
DESANTIS: Tucker, I mean, I think about when I was in school, we just did school work. We did like math, and science, and reading. I do not know how this will become fodder for a second grade classroom.
And so, the fact that they’re going to this lengths to try to torpedo legislation that I think 90 percent of parents probably view as common sense, it really makes you wonder, you know, about what’s motivating this decision-making.
CARLSON: It really does. And just to be clear, final question, I have read the bill. It doesn’t say anything about gay marriage, does it? Is this not an antigay marriage bill?
DESANTIS: Tucker, Tucker, the word gay is not in the legislation.
CARLSON: Right.
DESANTIS: So, they say it’s banning a word that literally isn’t even in the legislation. It’s not even like they’re misrepresenting the way the word is used. It’s not even used in the bill. It’s a fake a narrative. It’s a lie.
But it’s a lie because they have to lie because if they admitted what they were really for, sexualizing kindergartners and first graders, they know that would not fly with the public.
CARLSON: Man, you’ve got a lot of huevos to do this and I appreciate it, and I hope all the other cowards sitting in governors’ office around the country watch this.
Ron DeSantis, thank you.
DESANTIS: Thank you.