During a new interview, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed transgender ideology when asked about recent controversies involving the trans issue.
DeSantis made his comments when asked if the transgender movement represented an “an existential threat to women.” The governor referenced Lia Thomas, a male who claims to be female, who beat Emma Weyant, a woman, in the 2022 NCAA championships 500-yard race.
“A total fraud,” DeSantis said in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “I mean you have a swimmer that competes on the men’s team for three years at Penn and then switches to the women’s team and then wins the 500-yard freestyle national championship for women. When you’re a mediocre male swimmer and now you win the women’s, and so you had a second-place finisher, she was actually from Sarasota, she should have been the national champion.”
“I did a proclamation from our office saying she was the best woman swimmer in the 500 yard because she was,” DeSantis said. “That swimmer was not the best women’s 500-yard champion, okay? The number two [swimmer] was the best woman, so that’s just the bottom line.”
DeSantis went on to say that the main issue is that transgender ideology requires a “society based on deceit.”
“And so some of this is yes, it’s taking away opportunities, and athletics and some other stuff, and that’s really, really important,” he said. “But I think there’s also just the issue of, are we going to be a society based on truth? Or are we going to be a society based on deceit? And if you take a man and they dress up as a woman, and you tell me, I have to accept that they’re a woman, then you’re asking me to be complicit in a lie, and I just refuse to do that. So we’ve got to tell the truth. I think the truth will set you free.”
“If you take a man and they dress up as a woman and you tell me I have to accept that they’re a woman, then you're asking me to be complicit in a lie,” @RonDeSantisFL tells @bennyjohnson.
“I refuse to do that.”
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) April 18, 2023