McCaughey: Woke Corporate Elites Believe They Are Our Unelected Masters
Woke corporate CEOs seem to think they know better than voters what’s best for the country.
These titans are throwing their clout and cash behind activists pushing gender fluidity lessons for kindergarteners and other radical political causes.
Expect this corporate activism to backfire. Corporations should be serving their customers, not trying to override the democratic process.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently declared his opposition to a Florida law that bans instruction on sexual orientation and “gender identity” for children in kindergarten through third grade.
Vowing to defend the “basic human rights” of the LGBT community, Chapek pledged $5 million to the Human Rights Campaign. Even that whopping amount of money wasn’t sufficient.
The next night, at its annual star-studded gala, HRC removed Disney’s name from its corporate sponsorship list. HRC’s interim president, Joni Madison, spelled out the extortion: Disney’s money wouldn’t be accepted until the company put “real muscle” behind killing the Florida law and others like it.
That’s what Hollywood thinks is good for America. But Florida voters, who elected the state’s lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis, disagree. DeSantis says he won’t back down on his commitment to parental rights under pressure from “woke corporations.”
Something similar is happening in Texas, where 65 corporations — including IBM, Capital One and Apple — signed a letter from HRC in The Dallas Morning News opposing Gov. Greg Abbott’s investigation of young children undergoing “gender transition” procedures. Abbott is concerned that youngsters may be misled into receiving harmful treatments that prove irreversible later.
Why not let Texans’ elected leaders examine the facts? Who elected HRC to anything?
Disney chairman Peter Rice says the company’s standing up for “human rights.” Nonsense. Nothing in the Florida law endangers human rights. Only parental rights are at stake.
The law bans indoctrinating kids ages 4 to 7 on transgender ideology.
HRC wants that indoctrination. It proposes a K-3 lesson plan on the book “Julian Is a Mermaid.” The guide says teachers should tell kids they can choose their gender and their pronouns, regardless of their bodies or the clothes their parents give them to wear. Teachers are also encouraged to assure students that they can be different in school from what their families expect at home.
Another K-3 lesson plan featuring the book “I Am Jazz” tells teachers to say that “gender is a spectrum, not a binary.”
Most parents oppose children being force-fed these messages.
Disney boasts of being at the forefront of the LGBT movement, offering gay characters on the screen and LGBT-themed merchandise. In July, Disney introduced its first nonbinary character, Raine Whispers, on the show “The Owl House.” Raine Whispers is played by an actor who identifies as nonbinary.
That’s fine. Outside of school, parents can control what their children watch and avoid Disney products, if they choose.
But in school, parents aren’t always able to set limits.
What we’re witnessing — misinformed corporate chieftains acceding to the left without getting the facts — is a rerun of last year’s Georgia “voting rights” fiasco.
In April, giant companies including Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball announced a boycott of the state of Georgia, repeating Democratic claims that a newly passed voting law was racist.
Actually, the Georgia law reinstated long-standing safeguards put aside during the coronavirus pandemic, including voter ID requirements. The corporate executives protested that some 200,000 Georgians lacked a driver’s license. True, but the law allows for many other forms of ID, including a Social Security number, utility bill or paycheck.
Reading the law before declaring a boycott would have helped.
Now, woke politicians pushing extreme agendas like transgender indoctrination will face opposition from enraged parents in the midterm elections.
Corporations intimidated into tagging along should beware: These parents can vote with their wallets, too.
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