Ron DeSantis’s Rush to Homophobia

With Donald Trump continuing to dominate polls of Republican primary voters, other Republicans who have thrown the hats into the ring for the nomination save perhaps Chris Christie have shown there are no limits as to how far they will go to court the evangelicals/Christofascist and white supremacist who now are the core base of the Republican Party.  Few, however, have gone as far as Ron DeSantis who as his desperation has grown has eagerly embraced across the board homophobia and seemingly wants LGBT Americans to cease to exist. Disturbingly, other Republican candidates have jumped on the homophobia bandwagon and there are signs that increasingly LGBT individuals, especially those who are transgender, can expect to be depicted as a favored bogeyman by GOP politicians as the 2024 race picks up steam.  Here in Virginia, we can expect the same phenomenon in the General Assembly races in November.  Indeed, should Democrats lose control of the Virginia Senate and not regain control of the House of Delegates, Virginia could quickly become a carbon copy of DeSantis' Florida.  A piece in The Advocate looks at DeSantis and the demonizing of LGBT citizens.  Here are highlight:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at one point seemed to represent a new generation of Republican leadership.

During his first year as Governor of Florida, he visited the Pulse memorial and told gay lawmakers like Carlos Guillermo Smith and shooting survivors they would “have no problem” with his governance of LGBTQ+ issues, whatever other differences they had. Yet as he runs for president, DeSantis has rapidly built up a robust anti-LGBTQ record, including signing a bathroom segregation bill into law.

He’s also restricted access to trans health care, threatened business licenses for venues allowing minors into drag performances, and enacted an infamous “don’t say gay” law that forbids classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation.

As DeSantis ramps up homophobic rhetoric in his quest for the GOP nomination, he’s now attacked Trump for, of all things, promising in 2016 to protect LGBTQ+ Americans from terrorist attacks like the Pulse shooting. A video distributed by the DeSantis campaign attacks Donald Trump for allowing transgender contestants into beauty pageants and allowing Caitlin Jenner into the women’s room at Trump Tower. Moreover, it revels in the scorn from the LGBTQ community that DeSantis has drawn the past two years.

Nearly a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed marriage equality, the rush to the far right raises a shocking question. Is this how the 2024 Republican nomination for president will be decided?

The latest video promoted by the DeSantis team seems to have unleashed a public debate on the right over whether homophobia remains a value to which conservatives must cling.

“I spent the last 7 years of my life working with Trump to make the GOP a more welcoming place for gays WHILE ALSO being anti-groomer, anti-woke and pro religious liberty,” tweeted out conservative activist David Leatherman. “I’ve even worked WITH DeSantis on this agenda. This ad is a slap in the face, and makes any LGBT person supporting DeSantis look like an absolute idiot.”

Of note, the ad was originally distributed by the Twitter account @ProudElephantUS, an unabashedly pro-DeSantis account that in recent days attacked actor Christopher Moltisanti for criticizing a Supreme Court decision allowing service providers to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

The post releasing the video makes clear a desire for DeSantis to attack LGBTQ+ people on all matters.

Other conservative consultants make clear they badly want to make limits on LGBTQ+ rights a central plank of the presidential election. Spence Rogers of Go Right Strategies tweeted a wish list of anti-queer policies he wants the GOP to champion.

-Ban gay adoption -Ban drag queen story hour -Ban grooming in schools -Death penalty for pedos -Ban corporate grooming”

But other Republicans see room for tolerance of queer rights — to an extent. Rod Thomson, a Republican communications consultant in Florida, said there needs to be a delineation between gay and lesbian rights and what he sees as a “trans agenda.”

Jenner, who is supporting Trump, felt the video distributed by the campaign went too far. “DeSantis has hit a new low. But he’s so desperate he’ll do anything to get ahead - that’s been the theme of his campaign,” she tweeted. “You can’t win a general, let alone 2028 by going after people that are integral parts of the conservative movement!”

[M]any gay Republicans now wonder if the DeSantis strategy attacking all things Pride will damage the entire GOP brand.

“Team DeSantis is now using gays and lesbians as a wedge issue to divide the Republican Party,” Leatherman wrote. “And smearing Trump for being the most pro gay Republican in history. Apparently it’s no longer about protecting children, it’s going after gays.”