Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2025
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by Matt Lamb
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1 Comments
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Photo Credit | Disney Parks Blog
After pulling out all the stops to oppose Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law, The Walt Disney Company now plans to open its newest theme park in a country where homosexuality is punishable by years in prison. The development is just the latest example of the Mouse House putting dollars and cents ahead of its shallow commitment to woke virtue signaling.
Disney announced last week that it will build its seventh theme park in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Middle Eastern country that is fast becoming a “global consumer crossroads.” The new resort is expected to be the entertainment giant’s most expensive ever, with an estimated price tag of $10 billion. But in a sweet deal for Disney, UAE’s state-controlled entertainment developer Miral will reportedly “shoulder the entire financial burden.”
As would be expected for any private company, the decision is all about making money by tapping into a new customer base. “It was very obvious to us that there were many people, basically hundreds of millions, in the world that are income-qualified where a trip to one of our six locations was pretty lengthy in nature and expensive,” CEO Bob Iger said recently, as reported by Fox Business. “And so we felt the best way, obviously, to reach those people is to basically bring our product to them.”
Iger also said the company estimates there are half a billion potential customers “within four hours” of the new location and that “120 million people will come through Dubai and Abu Dhabi this year alone.”
“This is a thrilling moment for our company as we announce plans to build an exciting Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi, whose culture is rich with an appreciation of the arts and creativity,” Iger added.
But wait – doesn’t that “culture” conflict with Disney’s supposedly impassioned defense of gay rights and LGBT issues?
Iger’s statements are rather incredible given his very public lobbying in 2022 against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which liberals misleadingly dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill. That legislation, according to a nonpartisan state government analysis, prohibits “classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in March of that year.
Despite the common-sense nature of that legislation, Disney, with its flagship resort in Orlando, Florida, leapt into action following demands from liberal employees that the company take a public stance. Disney promised it would pause all political donations in 2022, a pledge that lasted only two years.
At the time, Iger also said the bill would “put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.” He later said, “It is about what is right and what is wrong, and that just seemed wrong. It seemed potentially harmful to kids.”
But while Iger and Disney were up in arms over a Florida law that prevents schools from exposing K-3 students to sexual content over claims that the legislation discriminates against gay people, they apparently have no such qualms with UAE laws that actually criminalize homosexuality. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the UAE also punishes crossdressing by up to a year in prison, along with fines and jail time for any speech or act that “offends public morals.”
Many commentators have been quick to point out this blatant hypocrisy. The virtue signaling “shows why Disney deserves such little respect,” Ian Miller wrote for Outkick. “Compared to the United Arab Emirates, Florida is an absolute bastion of tolerance when it comes to LGBTQ matters,” Katrina Trinko wrote in The Daily Signal.
But this is hardly the first time Disney has compromised its supposed commitment to “equality” and “tolerance” for profit. In 2019, for instance, Disney removed a lesbian “embrace” from “The Rise of Skywalker” theatrical release in Singapore. That same year, Disney changed the storyline of the Marvel movie “Dr. Strange” so that a character was not from Tibet, which China claims ownership over. Instead, the character named “The Ancient One” was cast as a Celtic woman.
Disney’s move into the UAE is more than just a business decision – it’s a revealing moment in the broader decline of corporate wokeism.
For years, companies like Disney have eagerly embraced progressive causes when it suited their image, loudly decrying common-sense efforts to protect kids from radical gender ideology and sexual perversion. At the same time, they have quietly bent the knee to actual oppression abroad when having real courage would have threatened their bottom line.
The contrast between Disney’s vocal opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights law and its partnership with a regime that criminalizes homosexuality reveals how hollow and performative its activism truly is. As consumers grow more aware of these double standards, the appeal of corporate moralizing fades.
In the end, actions—especially those that prioritize profits over principles—speak louder than hashtags or press releases ever could.
Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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