Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity.
Park guests stroll past the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Friday, July 14, 2023, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Disney is asking a Florida judge to toss out a lawsuit filed by Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees to Disney World's governing district. – Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World's governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov.
Glenton Gilzean, the district's new administrator who is African American and a former head of the Central Florida Urban League, called such initiatives “illegal and simply un-American." Gilzean has been a fellow or member at two conservative institutions, the James Madison Institute and the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, as well as a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Commission on Ethics.
“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal," Gilzean said in a statement."As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.
Richard Foglesong, a Rollins College professor emeritus, said he was surprised that the matter was decided internally, rather than by a public vote of the five members appointed by DeSantis to the district’s board who have promised repeatedly to be more transparent than their predecessors. “This is an issue of public importance,” said Foglesong, who wrote a definitive account of Disney World’s governance in his book, “Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.”
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