The bills aimed at Disney were passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature at a special session this week, aimed at the company’s self-governing status around its theme parks in the Orlando region and ending the exception to the state censorship law. Big Tech.
Florida lawmakers also adopted a new state congressional map this week, proposed by DeSantis himself, which critics say dilutes Black Florida electoral power and could favor Republicans in as many as 20 of the state’s 28 counties. .
A bill restricting the way schools and businesses can talk about race and gender was passed by lawmakers last month. It states that a student and employee cannot be told that “they must experience guilt, grief or other forms of psychological stress due to actions in which the individual has not played any role, performed in the past by other members of the same. race, color, sex or national origin. “
One of the bills signed by DeSantis reveals the nearly 55-year-old Reedy Creek Improvement Act, a unique Florida law that helped establish Walt Disney World in the state by giving the brain behind Mickey Mouse operational autonomy.
The new law will end the special area on June 1, 2023.
Another bill signed by DeSantis subject Disney to a state law that allows people to sue major technology companies for censorship after Disney won a release last year. A federal judge blocked the law, but Florida appealed the decision.
The two bills represent unprecedented political revenge against Disney for its criticism of the Parental Rights in Education bill, which critics have called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Disney did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Florida Democrats have been outspoken against the bills, accusing Republicans of retaliating against the state’s largest private employer in ways that will resonate with Sunshine State’s major tourism economy.
New map of Congress
The card, signed by DeSantis, could help Republicans win up to four seats in the US House of Representatives in November.
It is destroying Florida’s 5th Congressional District, currently represented by Democrat Al Lawson, which connects black communities from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. Instead, Jacksonville, the state’s largest African-American city, is divided into two Republican-facing areas.
The final product will also displace Florida’s 10th Congressional District, based in the Orlando area, represented by Val Demings, a black Democrat who is now running for the U.S. Senate, east of the Whiter communities.
DeSantis claims that these districts were racially fraudulent and suggests that they are unconstitutional.
A coalition of civil rights groups on Friday filed the first lawsuit against the new card, claiming the Republican had violated the state constitution by reducing the power of black voters. A state constitutional amendment known as Fair Districts, approved by voters in 2010, requires lawmakers to allow minority communities to “elect representatives of their choice.”
Several black members of the House of Florida staged a protest during Thursday’s debate, forcing an informal break before Republicans resumed the process by ending the debate and withholding votes during the protest.
The Republican-controlled State Chamber and Senate initially sought to preserve the state’s four black congressional districts. DeSantis threatened to veto these proposals.
The House of Representatives and the Senate adopted their own card in March amid objections from the governor. DeSantis vetoed and called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a special session to resolve the issue. Then Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate decided this month to allow the governor to take over.
DeSantis’s raid on the redirection process, which is repeated once a decade, is unusual. None of his immediate predecessors was particularly involved in redistributing state borders. It was a surprise for Tallahassee, including Republicans, when the governor’s office presented a map to lawmakers in January.
Republicans currently have a 16-11 lead in the House of Representatives delegation. The state added the 28th district after the 2020 census.
The new law restricts the way race can be discussed in the classroom
With the signing of the bill, which will place new restrictions on how schools and businesses can talk about race and gender, DeSantis has achieved one of his main goals in his re-election campaign. In December, he proposed the Stop Mistakes for Our Children and Employees Act (WOKE) to remove some race teachings from school programs and employee training. In particular, DeSantis called for a ban on critical racial theory and similar concepts.
This proposal became the legislative framework for HB 7, which passed the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year.
The law that DeSantis signed does not specifically mention critical racial theory, which recognizes that racism is both systemic and institutional in American society and benefits white people and oppresses black and brown Americans. However, an analysis of the bill by State Senate officials highlights the teaching of critical racial theory as something that would be prohibited by law.
“No one teaches critical racial theory,” said Sen. Audrey Gibson, a black Democrat from Jacksonville, on the day the bill was passed in the House. “This is a bill to look for a problem we don’t have.”
“This is politically motivated,” she added. “It’s meant to create division.”
Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that such a law could reduce schools’ sensitivity to history, including the Jim Crow era, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the Stonewall riots.
The bill, signed by DeSantis, says schools can teach about slavery and the history of racial segregation and discrimination in an “age-appropriate way,” but the instruction cannot “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”
The new law also says that students “must develop an understanding of the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotypes about individual freedoms and explore what it means to be a responsible and respectful person” and “celebrate the inspiring stories of prosperous African Americans.” even in the most difficult of circumstances. “
The law comes into force on July 1.
CNN’s Jade Tim-Garcia contributed to this story.
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