MIAMI – Leaders for both liberal and conservative organizations advocating for the rights of the LGBTQ+ communities in the United States criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis’s recent campaign ad.
Charles Moran is the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies since 1977.
“Just smacked of some latent homophobia in a time when Republicans, polling has shown time after time, has really moved beyond some of these divisive equality issues,” Moran said.
Orlando Gonzales, the executive director of Safeguarding American Values for Everyone, agreed with Moran. SAVE, a nonprofit organization founded in 1993, is based out of Miami.
“He is choosing to make an anti-LGBT message the center of his campaign,” Gonzalez said. “That is a sad platform to run on.”
Stephen C. Craig, a Northwestern University political scientist with the University of Florida, said he doubts the ad will help DeSantis win the Republican nomination.
“DeSantis is more likely to peel off Trump support if he is able to convince Republicans that he is more electable than Trump is — not that he is more conservative than Trump,” said Craig, whose major areas of expertise include campaigns and elections.
Both Moran and Gonzalez said DeSantis’s approach was alarming. Moran described it as “a big step back” and he also accused DeSantis of misjudging the relevant issues.
“Maybe that is a reflection of the fact that some of the policies he has been instituting in the state of Florida have been missing the mark about what their true concerns and problems are,” Moran said.
Gonzalez agreed and both said the ad’s use of “homoerotic images” was bizarre. Gonzalez accused DeSantis of being “more focused on targeting and hating on the LGBTQ community than focusing on public policy issues.”
Proud Elephant, a Twitter user with 260,000 followers, first shared the controversial ad that the DeSantis War Room, a Twitter campaign account with over 160,000 followers, shared the video on Friday to mark the last day of Pride Month.
The video starts with former President Donald Trump delivering a speech as a candidate after the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Trump then promised to “do everything” in his power to protect the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.
The video also featured Trump saying that he would allow transgender women to compete in Miss Universe, which he partly owned in 2015. Trump also said Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender woman and gold Olympic medalist formerly known as Bruce Jenner, would be allowed to use the restroom of her choice at the Trump Tower. The video also showed Trump celebrating Pride Month.
This was shown in contrast to headlines: “DeSantis Signs ‘Most Extreme Slate of Anti-Trans Laws in Modern History’” and “Pride event in St. Cloud canceled after DeSantis signs ‘Protection of Children Act’ into law.”
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