Walt Disney World’s new governing board is foreshadowing some potential controversies to come
FILE - People visit the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., April 18, 2022. The first meeting of the new board of Walt Disney Worlds government overhauled by sweeping legislation signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as an apparent punishment for Disney publicly challenging Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay bill dealt with the rote affairs any other municipal government handles.
For the most part, the new board members listened in a hotel ballroom outside Disney World as members of the public and workers from the district's departments explained what they do. The other new board members for what has been rechristened the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District included Bridget Ziegler, a conservative school board member and wife of the Florida Republican party chairman Christian Ziegler; Brian Aungst Jr., an attorney and son of a former two-term Republican mayor of Clearwater; Mike Sasso, an attorney; and Ron Peri, head of The Gathering USA ministry.
The takeover of the Disney district by DeSantis and the Florida Legislature began last year when the entertainment giant, facing intense pressure, publicly opposed “Don’t Say Gay,” which bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as lessons deemed not age-appropriate.
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