Eliminating Disney World’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and board will lead employees of color and who are LGBTQ to feel disenfranchised, according to a former GOP political operative.
“People who work for Disney don't make a whole lot of money but feel included,” said Vanessa Brito who served as a consultant for the Republican Party of Florida. “I think that’s going to change.”
Brito was responding to the news that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board overseeing Disney World dissolved DEI committees and eliminated jobs with DEI duties because they are allegedly discriminatory.
“I’ve talked to people who work at Disney from different backgrounds,” said Brito who previously managed political campaigns for GOP state Rep. Michael Bileca. “For many of them, English is not their first language. They're part of the LGBTQ plus community or they come from other countries and states to experience the type of inclusion Disney World has offered.”
The CFTOD board, whose members are appointed by DeSantis, came about after he signed Senate Bill 1604 on May 5, which canceled Disney’s agreements with the Reedy Creek Improvement Board.
As previously reported in the Florida Record, DeSantis created the CFTOD board earlier this year by signing House Bill 9-B, ending the Reedy Creek Improvement District that was created in 1967 to make decisions independent of the state about land use, improvements, development, and governance related to the Orlando theme park.
The new board sued Disney Parks & Resorts in Orange County state court on May 1 to nullify agreements signed in February under the former Reedy Creek Improvement District board that the legislature dismantled.
The complaint alleges that Disney, through the former board, failed to provide notice of public hearings, unlawfully delegated governmental authority to a private entity, lacked authority to enter into a development agreement and violated the Florida Constitution and state law.
“The contradiction here is that Republicans and conservatives are so good at diversity, and when they devise their political campaigns, they have arms that handle Cuban American voters, Puerto Rican voters, African American voters and they don’t just put every black voter in a box,” Brito added. “They have an arm for Caribbean Americans, Bahamian-Americans so they're very well versed on this whole diversity and inclusion. It’s comical to me because they implement the one thing that they're taking away from Disney workers.”