Survivors of the mass shootings at Pulse nightclub and Parkland are planning to pressure Walt Disney Co. to withdraw its support of self-described “NRA sellout” Adam Putnam by holding a “die-in” at a Disney property sometime this month.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, National Die-In, a group co-founded by Parkland survivors, is in the early stages of organizing the demonstration where protesters lie in a corpse-like pose to emphasize the effect of shooting massacres. The protest would be at a Disney headquarters or Orlando theme park.
National Die-In alluded to its plans on Twitter by posting “Can you guess where we’re going next?” with a “D” in the style of the Disney logo. David Hogg, the Parkland student who has risen to national prominence, responded with a tweet that said, “it’s D for die in.”
Disney has donated $789,000 to Republican Putnam’s political committee, Florida Grown, since 2015; including $300,000 since Feb. 14, when a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, setting off a firestorm of protests calling for greater gun control measures.
Student activists have targeted the National Rifle Association for blocking bills to limit magazine capacities and ban assault-style weapons. That has extended to companies that support politicians who back the NRA.
Last month, die-in protests at Publix stores throughout the state led the Lakeland-based grocery chain to suspend all political donations. Publix had given $670,000 to Putnam’s committee.
Putnam defended the companies and the support he’s received from them, blaming “politics” for the backlash they’ve received for donating to his political committee.
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