By Reuters: Gay Republicans criticized as “homophobic” a video posted by Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ marketing campaign highlighting rival Donald Trump’s previous statements in help of homosexual rights, and the previous president declined at a rally on Saturday to answer the assault.
Florida Governor DeSantis’ marketing campaign posted the video on Twitter late on Friday, saying it marked the top of a month of LGBTQ+ pleasure celebrations.
“To wrap up Pride Month, let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it,” the marketing campaign mentioned in presenting the video. It contrasted Trump’s 2016 pledge to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” with DeSantis’ personal hardline conservatism concerning transgender and different LGBTQ+ rights.
It was unclear who initially produced the video, which featured a montage of muscle-bound males, bolts of electrical energy flying from DeSantis’ eyes, and activists lamenting what they characterised as his efforts to limit transgender rights.
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“This is undeniably homophobic,” Richard Grenell – who was the primary brazenly homosexual White House Cabinet official as appearing director of nationwide intelligence throughout Trump’s 2017-2021 administration – mentioned on Twitter late on Friday.
As governor, DeSantis has backed state legal guidelines geared toward proscribing medical remedy for transgender youngsters and barring minors from attending drag exhibits in Florida.
His marketing campaign didn’t reply on Saturday to a request for remark.
At a rally in Pickens, South Carolina, Trump didn’t acknowledge the broadside from the marketing campaign for DeSantis, who trails far behind the previous president in public opinion polls and is working to construct help with hard-right positions on abortion, transgender rights and different points.
Instead, Trump, over the course of an hour-long marketing campaign speech, repeatedly criticized sporting occasions which have allowed transgender girls to take part in girls’s competitions.
“I will keep men out of women’s sports,” he vowed.
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Trump pledged on the 2016 Republican National Convention to guard homosexual rights. But, as president, he was criticized when he banned transgender folks from serving within the navy and his administration proposed stripping protections for transgender folks going through healthcare discrimination.
Asked on Saturday for a touch upon the video, Trump’s marketing campaign pointed to a tweet posted Friday night time during which Trump adviser Jason Miller mentioned “somebody’s getting fired” over the DeSantis marketing campaign’s publish. Miller didn’t elaborate.
The Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative group that advocates for homosexual rights, mentioned Republicans want to face up in opposition to “radical Left gays” however that DeSantis had gone too far.
“DeSantis and his team can’t tell the difference between commonsense gays and the radical Left gays,” the group mentioned in a tweet late on Friday, saying the presidential hopeful “has just ventured into homophobic territory.”