Video footage and photos shared online this past weekend showed Nazi demonstrators waving large swastika flags outside of Orlando’s Walt Disney World on Saturday, along with a Ron DeSantis 2024 flag.
State Representative Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, shared video footage of the demonstration on social media. “Nazis outside of Walt Disney World right now — absolutely disgusting,” Eskamani wrote. Pop singer P!nk later quote-tweeted the footage, adding what we were all thinking: “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????”
Nazis outside of Walt Disney World right now — absolutely disgusting. pic.twitter.com/WeXtRi3OSL
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) June 10, 2023
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office told USA Today that about 15 people gathered outside of the theme park, which dissolved within a couple of hours with zero arrests.
“We are aware of these groups that aim to agitate and incite people with anti-Semitic symbols and slurs. They are also aware of the law,” the OCSO said in a statement. “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate.”
Shannon Watts, founder of the anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action, also tweeted out a photo of the Nazi protest. Noting the pro-DeSantis imagery, as well as other signage containing homophobic and racist slurs, Watts stated in part: “This is the Republican Party of 2023.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently launched a bid for U.S. President, has been accused of aligning with Nazis, in no small part because many of them are fans of his, but also because of the hateful rhetoric coming out of his administration regarding LGBTQ Floridians and concepts of diversity and inclusion.
The DeSantis administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment by media organizations about the Nazi demonstration this past weekend, and he hasn’t posted any formal statement or response online as of Monday morning.
The governor’s office has addressed Nazi demonstrations before, including a response to a 2022 incident when a group of neo-Nazis placed a banner with the words “Vax the Jews” on an I-4 overpass between metro Orlando and Disney World.
That banner was accompanied by banners with swastikas, the phrase “Let’s Go Branon” (sic; can’t even get their own hate speech right) and the URL for hate group the Goyim Defense League.
Not coincidentally, that incident (and another neo-Nazi demonstration that occurred the same day at the corner of North Alafaya Trail and Waterford Lakes Parkway) happened to fall on the same weekend as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis has ALWAYS condemned antisemitic attacks & hatred, and he always will,” the governor’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told Click Orlando at the time. “To suggest otherwise is just plain wrong. I am confident that Florida law enforcement will respond appropriately and justice will be served to any protester who violates the law.”
That comment, however, came after Pushaw asked, in a now-deleted tweet about the incident, “Do we even know if they’re Nazis?”
So, damage control.
Pushaw also floated the idea that the Nazis were paid actors, stirring up outrage against DeSantis for cheap political points.
U.S. Congressman Darren Soto, D-Florida, had his own choice words for the demonstrators outside of Disney this weekend. “Hate has NO place in @OrangeCoFL,” Soto tweeted. “We love and protect our diverse community. Go home you Nazi losers and take your swastikas and DeSantis signs with you.”
Anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. have reportedly reached an all-time high, according to a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL’s report, released in March, identified 3,697 incidents of vandalism, harassment, and assault tied to anti-Semitism. Among all U.S. states, Florida had the fourth-highest number of incidents last year, with 269 reported incidents.
This past New Year’s Eve, an anti-Semitic slogan was also projected along a busy street in downtown Orlando. Saturday’s protest also wasn’t the first Nazi demonstration spied outside of Disney World, which has been embroiled in a messy political feud with DeSantis over the state’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, known as “Don’t Say Gay,” which targets classroom instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools. The law was approved by DeSantis last year, affecting students in kindergarten through third grade, and was further expanded up to eighth grade this year.
Abigail Disney, a documentarian and granddaughter of Roy Disney, quote-tweeted Rep. Eskamani’s initial video of this past weekend’s demonstration, sharing: “My grandfather is spinning in his grave.”
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