Ron DeSantis lies to Fox News about Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws

When FOX News asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) about his state’s bans on LGBTQ+ books and classroom instruction, DeSantis lied, saying it mostly protects schoolchildren from “x-rated materials” and so-called “gender ideology.” He believes gender ideology indoctrinates kids into identifying as trans, but that’s a lie as well.

On Sunday, Fox News Host Shannon Bream asked the Republican presidential candidate if he worried that some of his cultural fights have overshadowed and stolen attention from other issues he’d like to discuss.

Related:

DeSantis says it’s the media’s fault LGBTQ+ people think he’s dangerous

This isn’t the first time he’s tried to gaslight us.

“I do think, though, some of these cultural issues affect things far beyond whatever,” DeSantis said. “I mean, for example, we had the fight about the gender ideology in the elementary schools. We can’t, as a country, succeed if kindergartners are being taught that their gender is a choice or that they can change, they were born in the wrong body — that’s just wrong.”

Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024

Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

“I also think this society needs to be rooted in truth,” he continued. “And so many of these fights are based on things that are just not true, and we have a responsibility to fight back the truth, and set you free.”

Contrary to DeSantis’ belief, transgender children aren’t a “lie” — all major medical and psychological associations acknowledge their existence. These kids don’t become trans because of teachers pushing “gender ideology.” However, this sort of alleged “indoctrination” formed part of DeSantis’ reasoning for his infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law. The law bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in all grades.

Bream then mentioned a woman who she overheard saying, “‘I think it’s terrible in Florida that they’re banning books…. I don’t want my [LGBTQ+] child to go somewhere like that.'”

DeSantis replied, “Well, first of all, there’s not a single book that’s been banned in the State of Florida, that is a media hoax.”

It’s not a hoax. DeSantis’ own Department of Education (DOE) has revealed that schools across the state have removed approximately 300 books during the 2022-2023 school year. The Charlotte County School District ordered all books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters to be removed from classrooms and libraries, Escambia County banned a non-sexual kid’s book on gay penguins and Manatee County banned a children’s picture book because two characters in it “seem” gay.

DeSantis then said, “To take a book out of a fourth-grade classroom that’s pornographic because it’s not appropriate for kids of that age, it’s not ‘banning’ the book…. Some of these books are x-rated.”

He was being dishonest, however. Many of the books being challenged in Florida aren’t “pornographic” or “x-rated,” even though some right-wing conservatives consider any acknowledgment of LGBTQ+ issues to be “pornographic.”

He then added, “A teacher should not be instructing a second-grader that their gender is a choice…. They need to be focusing on math and they focus on reading, they focus on science…. What we’re doing is really vindicating what education should be. It should not be a hobby horse for the school systems to impose an agenda on the kids.”

But DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ laws go far beyond books and classroom instruction, showing his true animus against the entire transgender community, not just trans children.

He signed his state’s new bathroom bill, HB 1521. It criminalizes anyone who uses a toilet or changing facility that doesn’t match the gender they were assigned at birth. The law applies to public schools, universities, parks, prisons, and other government buildings. He has also signed a law allowing state officials to take temporary custody of children who may be receiving gender-affirming care now or in the future.

An April Fox News poll showed that, among registered voters, transgender issues ranked 14th among the “most important issues facing the country today.” The economy, cost of living, gun violence, political extremism, corruption, national security, immigration, climate change, crime, racism, abortion, homelessness, and healthcare all ranked much higher.