DeSantis-appointed board overseeing Disney area abolishes DEI, ‘race-based’ policies
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (FLV) – The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which oversees the Walt Disney World area, announced Tuesday it abolished all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs within the district.
Glenton Gilzean, the district administrator, made the announcement Tuesday after an internal investigation into the previous Reedy Creek Improvement District’s hiring policies.
Reedy Creek implemented hiring and contracting programs that discriminated against Americans based on gender and race, according to Gilzean in a press release.
“The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were advanced during the tenure of the previous board and they were illegal and simply unamerican,” Gilzean said.
Reedy Creek originally oversaw the Walt Disney World area until the state legislature created the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Gov. Ron DeSantis then appointed the new members to the Central Florida district.
The district said their DEI committee and DEI jobs will be eliminated, ridding it of DEI initiatives.
“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” the new district administrator said. “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.”
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said the previous district tended to award contracts “based on racially and gender driven goals.”
It occurred under the Minority/Women Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programs. The new district said Reedy Creek implemented gender and racial quotas to meet diversity thresholds.
“In order to meet these quotas, it is estimated that the district had to pay millions of dollars more in order to find businesses who could comply,” the press release said. “After entering into a contract, Reedy Creek employees aggressively monitored contractor’s racial and gender practices, wasting taxpayer dollars.”
Just before the new Central Florida district members took office, the former Reedy Creek district allowed contracts that gave significant authority to Disney. The DeSantis administration called the contracts far-reaching and the board nullified the agreements.
In response, Disney filed a lawsuit against the district.
The company previously alleged that the governor-appointed board is engaging in a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” that would threaten “Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
DeSantis’ office previously responded, saying Disney has no “legal right” to “operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state.”
The Central Florida district was created after Disney said it would try to revoke the state legislature’s Parental Rights in Education Act, falsely dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.” The legislation prohibited gender teachings between K-3 Grades. It has since been expanded to 8th Grade.
