A small percentage of people somehow believe a DeSantis presidency would benefit LGBTQ+ people

A recent poll by The Economist and YouGov has found that 8% of Americans believe life for LGBTQ+ people would improve if Ron DeSantis (R) becomes president. It’s a small number, of course, but it is nonetheless a bit surprising considering the current Florida governor has made his vitriolic feelings about the LGBTQ+ community extremely clear.

The governor has supported several anti-LGBTQ+ policies under the guise of “protecting children” from “sexualization,” and his ruthless campaign against LGBTQ+ youth has led more than half of LGBTQ+ parents to consider leaving Florida, according to a survey from the Williams Institute. In May, he wouldn’t even say whether or not he supports marriage equality, and his presidential campaign has promoted more than one viciously anti-LGBTQ+ ad to brag about DeSantis’s attacks on the community.

Related:

Not even Florida Republicans support Ron DeSantis

DeSantis likes to say that “Florida is where woke goes to die.” His home state is also becoming a graveyard for his presidential ambitions.

Despite all of this, 28% of respondents in the poll said they were not sure whether LGBTQ+ people would be worse off under DeSantis. 24% said things would be the same, and 40% said LGBTQ+ people would have it worse.

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Slightly more people (12%) believe Donald Trump – widely considered the most anti-LGBTQ+ president in modern history – would be good for the LGBTQ+ community. Voters have less faith in Mike Pence, with 7% of respondents saying he’d improve LGBTQ+ life. Nikki Haley tied with DeSantis at 8%.

The poll surveyed 1,500 people and also found a large discrepancy when comparing the attitudes of men and women. 12% of men said DeSantis would be good for LGBTQ+ people, compared to only 4% of women.

According to Florida Politics, the poll was conducted in the midst of DeSantis becoming a universal laughingstock for supporting a bizarre anti-LGBTQ+ ad. Both Republicans and Democrats eviscerated DeSantis for what many called a desperate attempt by a failing campaign.

The ad, which has since been deleted, opened with several clips of Donald Trump – DeSantis’s top primary opponent – expressing support for LGBTQ+ people and frames these comments as damning. 

After the clips of Trump – most of which came from before he was elected president in 2016 – the video abruptly shifts to intense music and a photo of DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, followed by snapshots of headlines about the anti-LGBTQ+ laws DeSantis has passed.

The video proudly shares that DeSantis has been called “evil,” “dangerous,” “draconian,” and “public enemy no. 1” and even includes a clip accusing DeSantis of passing legislation “that literally threatens trans existence.” It also contains images of shirtless buff muscle men inter-spliced with these statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state.

DeSantis then defended the ad while speaking to conservative political commenter Tomi Lahren: “Identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants — I think that’s totally fair game. Because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”