Why Ron DeSantis views attacks on drag queens as a great presidential election issue

[Nevilledog]

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Joe Sudbay
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Why Ron DeSantis views attacks on drag queens as a great presidential election issue, by @MSignorile

"DeSantis is whipping up hate, the kind that leads to violence, equating LGBTQ people with 'filth.'”

signorile.substack.com
Why Ron DeSantis views attacks on drag queens as a great presidential election issue
It's a cynical, sinister crusade, using a 1947 court ruling, and it poses a threat to every LGBTQ person. It's also a threat to every American.
6:05 PM · Aug 2, 2022

https://signorile.substack.com/p/why-ron-desantis-views-attacks-on

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is making headlines again by using a 1947 Florida Supreme Court ruling which bans “men impersonating women” in a complaint he filed against a restaurant, threatening to shut it down, seizing its liquor license.

DeSantis pointed to a video taken at the R House restaurant in Miami — during its “Drag Brunch” —- showing a child walking with a drag queen, and said in a news conference that investigators found minors present and a “children’s menu” at the afternoon, outdoor event. This was an escalation of the attack on drag shows DeSantis made weeks ago, floating the idea of having child protective services investigate parents who take their children to drag performances.

It seems preposterous to many, and on the surface a lot of people will say this is a big loser as a political issue in any general election — and it may well be. Drag is after all part of American culture — going back to folks like comedian Milton Berle (and way, way before) and right up to RuPaul’s Drag Race today. For many people it’s great entertainment, and certainly nothing nefarious.

But it’s not difficult to discern how this is all part of DeSantis’s morality crusade to court Christian nationalists and the unhinged, conspiracy-addled MAGA base by attacking the LGBTQ movement as he seeks a presidential run, while also believing he can bring in some suburban voters and others, or at least not alienate them.

That’s because DeSantis has astutely, and sinisterly, focused on issues involving LGBTQ people or culture as they relate to children. He knows that the vast majority of Americans support marriage equality — a romantic and legal bond between two adults — so he’s steered clear of commenting on the Respect for Marriage Act, for example, which, if passed, would have the federal government recognize same-sex marriage and interracial marriage should the Supreme Court threaten either or both. In fact, he’s rarely if ever talked about marriage equality at all.

*snip*

[Mariana]

1. He's after the white Evangelical Christian vote.

If he runs, he'll get the votes of at least the same percentage of them that Trump did, 80+ percent of them.

[Deuxcents]

2. I think he thinks they're an easy target

But they’re not. Nor are the people who support them. I also think he sorely miscalculated this one

[EnergizedLib]

3. *He* is filth

People don’t like it so much want you want to take rights away. I hope his lack of charisma hurts him.

[uponit7771]

4. Disgusting fucker

[keithbvadu2]

5. Any equivalence to republican filth, Ron?

Any equivalence to republican filth, Ron?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/26/2048394/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-26