It sometimes makes you wonder why people believe everything they read online. A video was making the rounds on Facebook this week, supposedly of the co-chair of Disney’s entertainment division, Alan Bergman, making some wild claims about the company’s plans. The claims were so outlandish that if anyone took a second to think about them logically, they would have realized there was no way this was happening. However, there was still a tiny but vocal group of people who were outraged by what they perceived to be accurate.
Conservative commentator and YouTuber Mark Dice made his name online by posing as other people and commenting at city council meetings to make fun of liberal causes. This time, Dice showed up at an Oceanside, California City Council meeting, posing as Bergman, and claimed that Disney was opening a pediatric transgender clinic.
Dice told the meeting:
We’re proud to announce that this summer we’re going to be opening Disney-themed pediatric transgender clinics for the children across the country. Our Disney-branded puberty blockers and our character-themed clinics will help reduce the stigma transgender and nonbinary children face and normalize these ideas.
Dice claimed that every patient would receive a season pass to a Disney Theme Park and a six-month subscription to Disney Plus to make his claim even more outlandish. The video was flagged by Facebook for spreading misinformation and taken down, but by that point had already been viewed more than 175,000 times and had more than 3,000 comments.
While most people immediately knew that Dice was not, in fact, speaking for the Walt Disney Company, many of the comments wanted to believe the worst about Disney. This stunt by Dice helps to support the narrative created by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that Disney, through its films and Theme Parks, is trying to groom children by exposing them to LGBTQ+ characters.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican nomination for President, has made his fight with Disney a central part of his campaign. The Walt Disney Company spoke out against the Parental Rights in Education Act, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which drew the governor’s ire.
PolitiFact rated this video and Dice’s claim as false, as Disney World is not in the business of offering gender-affirming care. This is just Dice’s attempt to use gender identity and the LGBTQ community to stir anger on social media.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
As a family going to Disney for almost 50 years, they have succeeded in alienating my family – all generations. We no longer feel comfortable or accepted. Not only is the quality down and the price out of sinc, but what they considered as “family” friend is not shared by most of the world – and they don’t care. Hence, this guy’s speech was believable.