(Headline USA) The Log Cabin Republicans, a prominent group that represents homosexual RINOs that was hosted at Mar-A-Lago and praised by Donald Trump, says a video shared by Ron DeSantis′ presidential campaign that slams rival Donald Trump for his support of homosexual and transgender people “ventured into homophobic territory.”
The “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account shared the video on Friday — the last day of June, and the last day of ‘pride month,’ — that features footage of Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.”
The video also highlights “LGBTQ for Trump” T-shirts sold by the former president’s campaign and his past comments saying he would be comfortable with Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, using any bathroom at Trump Tower and OK with transgender women competing one day in the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time of those remarks.
The video then suddenly transitions to images of DeSantis, accompanied by dark, thumping music.
It promotes headlines that DeSantis signed “the most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history” and a “draconian anti-trans bathroom bill.”
“To wrap up ‘Pride Month,’ let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it,” the DeSantis campaign tweeted.
The video drew immediate criticism from prominent LGBTQ+ Republicans, including the Log Cabin Republicans, which bills itself as the nation’s “largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives.”
“Today’s message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate. Republicans and other commonsense conservatives know Ron DeSantis has alienated swing-state and younger voters,” the group said in a tweet, adding that DeSantis’ “extreme rhetoric goes has just ventured into homophobic territory.”
The group said his “rhetoric will lose hard-fought gains in critical races across the nation. This old playbook has been tried in the past and has failed — repeatedly.” The post said DeSantis’ “naive policy positions are dangerous and politically stupid.”
Jenner accused the DeSantis campaign of using “horribly divisive tactics!”
“DeSantis has hit a new low,” Jenner wrote on Twitter.
The video comes as Republicans have been wading into increasingly socially conservative territory, attacking celebrations of sodomy, trying to ban public displays of homosexuality, and passing legislation to limit drag show audiences to adults, along with broad attacks on men invading women’s spaces.
That rhetoric has seeped into the GOP presidential campaign, taking a prominent role that had been absent during recent past competitive primaries, including in 2016, when Trump, a New York reality TV star, generally presented himself as a supporter of ‘LGBT rights.’
DeSantis leaned in on his anti-grooming policies as he prepared to jump into the 2024 White House race. He signed his anti-grooming bill and extended it to cover all grades in Florida, banned genital mutilation for minors, targeted drag shows whose audience included minors, restricted discussion of personal pronouns in schools and forced people to use bathrooms that align with their sex. DeSantis also went after President Joe Biden for prominently displaying the Pride flag at the White House last month.
The video, originally posted by the pro-DeSantis “@ProudElephantUS” account, was shared hours after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
