A Disney employee running for Congress in Florida is claiming that a “silent majority” of employees at the company support Florida’s controversial education legislation.
Jose Castillo, who claims to be a resort duty manager at the company, blasted Disney for making a “terrible miscalculation” by caving to the “loud minority” in the company and jumping into a controversial culture battle that could be off-putting to prospective patrons in an interview with Fox News.
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“There is immense pressure to toe the company line,” Castillo told Fox News Digital. “However, the reality is that those drawing attention to this issue are in the minority. The Disney cast members who support the parental rights defended by H.B. 1557 far outnumber those who are protesting against it.”
On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which has been dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law, H.B. 1557, restricts classroom discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation up to third grade. After internal backlash over its initial decision to stay mum on the issue, Disney reversed course and torched the bill.
“Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that,” the company said Monday after it became law.
Last week, workers at the company participated in a walkout, calling on the company to rev up its public opposition to the bill and denouncing it for dragging its feet on its criticism of the legislation. Critics of the law, including some Disney workers, contend that the bill could restrict gay teachers from talking about their spouses with their classes or isolate children with gender dysphoria. Supporters argue the bill is safeguarding parental rights about what is taught in the classroom.
Castillo praised DeSantis and Florida Republicans for standing by the bill in the face of mounting public pressure against it.
“Floridians, including Disney employees, democratically elected Florida’s state House representatives and state senators, and those elected officials passed this law; and then, thank God, Gov. DeSantis signed it into law,” he told Fox News Digital.
He is running in the 9th Congressional District in Florida. The state notably does not have a legally binding congressional map in place.
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Disney’s outspokenness on the issue has prompted a flood of criticism from conservative supporters of the legislation. Conservative media company the Daily Wire recently announced it was launching a conservative alternative to Disney’s children’s content. Additionally, last week, an anonymous group of Disney employees wrote a letter to the company calling on it to stay “politically neutral” on the issue.
“Over the last few weeks, we have watched as our leadership has expressed their condemnation for laws and policies we support. We have watched as our colleagues, convinced that no one in the company could possibly disagree with them, grow increasingly aggressive in their demands,” the letter read.
