What Exactly is the Reedy Creek Improvement District?

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Reedy_Creek_Improvement_District

The Disney versus DeSantis situation has many different layers, and the purpose of this blog is to peel them back one by one and examine them in terms of political outcome and in relation to the media. One layer that has stumped even the biggest of Disney fans is the involvement of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). For this post, I plan to dive into what the Reedy Creek Improvement District is exactly, how it impacts Disney, and why DeSantis chose to target them. 

I posted previously explaining the entire timeline of events for the Disney versus DeSantis situation, so if you’re interested in that I recommend looking for that article. For the purpose of this post, however, I want to highlight one moment of time within the entire timeline. This would be April 19, 2023, when DeSantis terminated the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s involvement with daily Disney operations (Tarif & Marques, 2023). What exactly is the Reedy Creek Improvement District and how does this impact Disney? 

According to the About page on the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s website, it was created to act as its own county government to assist Disney with daily operations. This was due to how secluded Disney was within Orange and Osceola County. RCID describes itself as a “special taxing district,” but also says the new legislation ensures that citizens’ taxes won’t be used to pay for Disney’s power, water, roads, fire protection, etc. One of RCID’s main task is to maintain the safety and cleanliness of the water, and they do so by conducting 90,000 tests annually (Alvarez, 2023).  

RCID has recently been renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) (Reedy Creek: The facts you need in 2023, 2023). CFTOD is described on the official Walt Disney World website as a “cost-effective mechanism for ensuring that the tax burden for [power, water, roads, fire protection, etc.] does not fall on Orange and Osceola County taxpayers.” On the same page it’s stated that the future of Reedy Creek remains bright as Disney plans to continue to financially support Florida, as well as provide thousands of jobs to its citizens. 

All of this sounds harmless – so why did DeSantis target RCID specifically in the beginning of their feud? Apparently, back in February, a new power was given to RCID to overpower DeSantis’ tourism oversight board and their decisions regarding Walt Disney World (Mates, 2023). In addition to the new legislation for RCID, the board was granted “superior authority” over the district in April. Disney retaliated by suing DeSantis for unfair treatment, claiming he was just retaliating against them for Chapek and Disney’s public disapproval of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This next part is hefty, so I’m going to include the entire section: 

“The tourism oversight board then retaliated with its own lawsuit against Disney. The suit claims the agreements with Disney ‘reek of a backroom deal.’ The previous board members failed to give proper notice about the agreements, lacked the authority to make them, unlawfully delegated governmental authority to a private entity and the agreements are unenforceable under Florida law, according to the suit” (Mates, 2023). 

Ultimately, it appears that DeSantis was searching for places to hit Disney and hit Disney hard, and stripping the power of its person district that controls their power, water, roads, etc. is one of the most impactful things to hit. On the surface, Walt Disney World is trying to appear at peace with the situation. However, I wonder how the company truly feels about DeSantis’ involvement in what was formerly known as RCID and how they plan to go from here.

 

Citations 

Alvarez, N. (2023, July 26). Wesh 2 exclusive: Inside what used to be the Reedy Creek Improvement District. WESH. https://www.wesh.com/article/inside-reedy-creek-improvement-district-disney/44639877 

Harif, T., & Marques, F. (2023, April 27). Disney versus desantis: A timeline of the Florida feud. Time. https://time.com/6275097/disney-desantis-florida-feud-timeline/ 

Mates, T. (2023, May 5). Florida gov. Desantis Signs bill to void reedy creek development agreement with Disney. WKMG. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/05/05/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-to-void-reedy-creek-development-agreement-with-disney/ 

Reedy Creek: The facts you need in 2023. Walt Disney World External Affairs. (2023, April 21). https://disneyconnect.com/disneyworld/our-community/reedy-creek-facts-2023/ 

 

Disney's History With the LGBTQ+ Community Examined

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/07/disney-lgbtq-community-gay-days-american-conservatives

The focus of this blog is to discuss the Disney versus DeSantis situation currently unfolding. As discussed in previous blogs, the line was drawn in the sand between these two when former CEO of Disney Bob Chapek spoke publicly about his distaste for the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill that DeSantis passed in Florida. Afterwards, Disney as a company made a public statement basically saying the same thing as Chapek – they don’t support what this bill stands for. To not become redundant, I will not be repeating this bill and everything it entails. For this post, however, I will quickly say it heavily concerns the LGBTQ+ community. Because of its relevance in this matter, I wanted to look back at Disney’s history with the LGBTQ+ community and how it got to the point of publicly defending them as a company. 

I would consider the Disney company as a whole an ally in the LGBTQ+ community. Every year when pride month rolls around in June, they come out with an entire collection of rainbow merchandise to celebrate. This is not surprising, because it’s become mainstream for companies to celebrate pride month during the month of June. Whether it’s releasing a pride collection (such as Disney and Target) or changing their Instagram profile picture to a rainbow theme, a decent number of companies show their support of the gay community during this month. However, Disney has gone above and beyond by now speaking outright against things such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that damages the LGBTQ+ community and its reputation. How did they get to this point? 

https://d23.com/new-details-about-disney-100-years-of-wonder-revealed-to-fans-during-d23-expo/

The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923 – literally a century ago (hence all the Disney 100 merchandise you’ve probably seen in every retail store) (A&E Television Networks, n.d.). The gay liberation movement didn’t begin until the 1960s and lasted two decades, into the 1980s (The Gay Liberation Movement, n.d.). According to Chapman (2023), the Disney company was very silent on LGBTQ+ issues during the 20th century. This does not surprise me at all given the political climate regarding the gay community prior to the 21st century. Disney films did include some queer-coded character’s, however, with feminine male characters and villains with a male sidekick that were a little too devoted to them to be considered a normal “bromance.” These queer-coded villains began to appear after the gay liberation movement, specifically during the 90s. This could be because a good amount of Disney employees was part of the LGBTQ+ community, thus influencing some of the characters and their behavior/personalities. 

https://culturacolectiva.com/en/entertainment/movies/divine-drag-queen-inspiration-ursula-the-little-mermaid/

I’ll list a couple of obvious examples of queer-coded villains in the early Disney films just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast was strikingly straight, but LeFou had an unhealthy obsession with this man. In addition to his sidekick, Gaston’s song (named after himself) included lyrics sung by men that were queer-coded. Ursula has been confirmed to be based off of drag queen Divine. 

This seems to be the beginning of Disney’s venture into supporting the LGBTQ+ community. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing to where they are now. Chapman (2023) discusses how Disney did little to support their gay employees during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Disneyland then became the unofficial host of what was termed “Gay Days,” a celebration of the first day of June at the parks. Disney wouldn’t officially host the event, however, and would also create homophobic signs warning the other attendees about the “gay community” celebrating pride month at their park. Disney would also hand out free white t-shirts to attendees who weren’t partaking in the celebration but chose to wear red, because red was the signature color of the event. 

https://www.gaytravel.com/gay-blog/disney-channel-debuts-lesbian-couple-video

For the next decade, characters continued to be made in Disney movies and television that were heavily queer-coded, but it wasn’t until 2014 that Disney would include their first openly queer relationship in Good Luck Charlie, a popular show on Disney Channel. This was received poorly by homophobic viewers. Mia Talerico, the actress who played Charlie on the show, received death threats online after the episode aired (Parry, 2014). The media was neutral to the release of this episode, not really supporting their decision but not spreading hate themselves. 

https://www.insider.com/beauty-and-the-beast-josh-gad-regrets-gay-moment-2022-3

In 2017, LeFou would be confirmed as gay in the Beauty and the Beast live action re-make, but only at the end of the movie during a dancing scene. Since then, several other openly gay characters have appeared in Disney shows and film. They’ve even made it to the point of having lead character’s that are openly gay in television and film. 

It appears that Disney became an ally as society itself opened more towards the LGBTQ+ community. I believe this was due to their continuous hiring of gay employees that contributed significantly to the success of their company. It could also be because they didn’t want to receive backlash from society if they continued to act homophobic and not include gay characters. As for Bob Chapek’s response as CEO to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, I believe he did so because he felt pressured by the Disney fans and the employees around him. The same can be said for why the Disney company responded officially. They could have stayed silent like their competition Universal. However, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and a Disney fan, I am proud that they stuck their neck out on the situation and are fighting against the consequences of doing so. I am also proud of the progress they have made in the past century regarding the LGBTQ+ community. 

https://wdwnt.com/2023/05/disney-pride-2023-collection-including-spirit-jersey-ears-pins-and-more-available-at-walt-disney-world/

Citations 

A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). Walt Disney Company is founded. History.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/walt-disney-company-founded 

Chapman, W. (2023, August 4). Disney’s Queer Track Record: A Troubled History. IndieWire. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/disney-lgbtq-representation-parks-history-1234873940/ 

The Gay Liberation Movement. Bill of Rights Institute. (n.d.). https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-gay-liberation-movement 

Parry, L. (2014, February 4). Disney star of Good Luck Charlie, aged five, receives death threats on her Instagram account. Daily Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551390/Disney-star-Good-Luck-Charlie-aged-FIVE-receives-death-threats-Instagram-account.html