Anti-LGBTQ incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made fun of LGBTQ people in a recent campaign mailer to Floridians.
The mailer lambasts DeSantis’s Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, showing a photo of him hugging President Biden and claiming that Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is “forcing hard working Floridians to pay back student loans for degrees like Gender Studies and French Poetry.” The mailer claimed that “The Biden-Crist College Loan Bailout” would “make inflation worse”; “punish hard-working taxpayers”; and “reward universities.”
In addition to mocking those who major in Gender Studies, the other side of the flyer includes a stock photo of what seems to be a Getty stock image of a nonbinary college student in a cap and gown proudly holding up their diploma. There is a speech bubble accompanying the image that reads, “Thank you, Joe Biden and Charlie Crist, for making Floridians pay off my student debt.”
DeSantis has long been using LGBTQ people as political pawns and has waged war against them through his support of anti-LGBTQ legislation like the infamous Don’t Say Gay law he signed, as well as his continued anti-trans rhetoric. He has even worked to punish Disney for speaking out in favor of LGBTQ Equality and against the Don’t Say Gay law.
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Many were horrified by the mailer.
“That this ad and others like it are running in 2022, not 1970, tells us the kind of future envisioned by DeSantis and his right wing cronies,” Equality Florida press secretary Brandon Wolf told Huffington Post.
“These extremists are hellbent on returning us to the darkest days of anti-LGBTQ hysteria that fueled discrimination, bigotry, and violence against the community. The war they are waging against equality – and LGBTQ Floridians – is dangerous, cynical, and should be condemned by all who want to see a Florida that is more inclusive of and safe for all people.”
Proving there is no bottom for these bigoted slugs, Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP sent out this preposterously homophobic mailer on student debt cancelation. Just so gross. pic.twitter.com/AqypaalCp0
— Jordan Zakarin (@jordanzakarin) November 2, 2022
This is homophobic and dangerous, and also ironic, because Ron DeSantis is himself a walking gender studies seminar. https://t.co/fP9XsFTMPB
— Chloe Angyal (@ChloeAngyal) November 2, 2022
