Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Screen capture/CNN)
During an interview Sept. 13 with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, doubled down on his anti-LGBTQ+ policies by attributing backlash to controversy ginned up by the media.
The governor’s comments began with O’Donnell’s question about the travel advisory issued in May by the NAACP over legislation the group characterized as “openly hostile for African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ individuals.”
“They obviously have (a) very left wing agenda,” DeSantis said.
When she countered that some minorities including LGBTQ+ people feel unsafe visiting the state, particularly after laws targeting them were passed in recent months, DeSantis said, “part of the reason they think that is ’cause of narratives that are put out by media.”
He said the press was responsible for dubbing last year’s Parental Rights in Education Act the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, adding that the law does not include the word “gay.”
Regardless, as the Human Rights Campaign pointed out when the law was expanded to cover public schools from pre-K through 8th grade, it “silences educators by prohibiting any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The group, America’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, also highlighted other anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that was signed concurrently by the governor in May: “an extreme gender affirming care ban” and “an anti-trans bathroom bill.”
While he declined to say whether he would support a U.S. Supreme Court justice who sought to overturn the 2015 marriage equality precedent, DeSantis said such an outcome would be unlikely in consideration of the ruling’s “significant reliance interest.”
Asked whether everyone would feel welcome in America if he is elected president, DeSantis responded “100%.”
Even some of his fellow Republicans, however, spoke up to denounce a homophobic ad run by DeSantis’s campaign this summer that targeted former President and current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump — who, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, is ahead of the governor by more than 40 points.
