After DeSantis Warning, Disney Announces ‘Pride Nite’

Disneyland on Monday announced its first “Pride Nite” hours after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined legislation aimed at the entertainment giant’s efforts to circumvent oversight in his state.

The California-based theme park on Monday announced a festive after-hours special event, “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite,” hours after DeSantis — in the shadow of a number of Disney Parks in Lake Buena Vista, Florida — touted new legislation to quash Disney’s resistance of a state takeover of its special taxing district.

“You’re not going to have Disney have its own government in Central Florida,” DeSantis said. “You’re going to live under the same laws as everybody else.”

The feud was first triggered by Disney’s public condemnation of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms. The Parental Rights in Education law was passed in March 2022. 

The battle intensified in February when DeSantis created a new board to oversee the Reedy Creek Improvement District and limit the company’s powers.

However, before outgoing board members were replaced, they voted in special measures that reverted most of the panel’s powers back to Disney. 

“Disney did special deals to circumvent that whole process,” DeSantis said Monday. “They controlled the board. It was basically a legal fiction where they negotiated with themselves to give themselves self-governing status. That’s in direct defiance of the will of the people of Florida.”

The Pride event has been billed as “a separately ticketed event which celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community and allies, and will be held on June 13 and 15, 2023, inside Disneyland park,” according to Disney Parks Blog.