Disney's Stance On Parental Rights Bill Called 'Appalling'

Gina Ciarcia, a former teacher running for Congress in Virginia, called The Walt Disney Company's opposition to a Florida parental rights bill "appalling" and warned of the psychological damage that teachers can do to young children by teaching them about sexuality too early, reports Fox News.

Disney has taken a firm stance against the parental rights law H.B. 1557, which critics have branded the "Don't Say Gay" law, even though the law does not ban the word "gay." Rather, the law prohibits classroom instruction – not casual discussion – on "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" with children in third grade or younger, "or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

"It’s appalling to see Disney so adamantly protesting the Parental Rights in Education bill," Ciarcia, a mother of five children who led a home-school co-op and who taught history, logic, literature, Latin, and writing at two private schools, told Fox News Digital on Friday. "As a mother of five and a career teacher, I also find it extremely unnerving that a company responsible for creating so much of what our children watch would push against legislation to prevent content we know is harmful from reaching our children."

"This bizarre insistence of the left to push sexuality-focused teaching and even, in the worst instances, pornographic material, to our K-3 students is not only disturbing and appalling, but will be truly psychologically and developmentally detrimental to our children," Ciarcia warned.

Parents in Virginia and other states have sounded the alarm about books they call obscene and pedophilic, but which librarians and LGBTQ activists defend as essential for diversity. "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison, for instance, includes long sections of a boy reminiscing about explicit experiences he had at 10 years old and "Gender Queer: A Memoir," by Maia Kobabe includes photos of sexual acts between a boy and a man. 

"Young children are not emotionally prepared to grapple with these subjects, nor are they naturally inclined to want to," the former teacher said.