This week’s Republican debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis was a nonstop sniping fest as both candidates tried to convince voters their opponent isn’t bigoted enough to be president. DeSantis specifically took his already aggressive transphobia to a new level, even creating a brand-new made-up word for the occasion.
The CNN moderators of the debate took a minute to ask Ron DeSantis about his ridiculous feud with Disney. DeSantis stated, “It’s wrong to tell a kindergartner, like Disney wanted to do, that you can change your gender or tell a third grader that you’re born in the wrong body.”
Disney did not do that. If you remember, this entire feud started because Disney CEO Bob Chapek said he opposed Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans discussions of issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, including basic recognition of LGBTQ+ people. Chapek also only gave a tepid statement of opposition after weeks of urging from customers and Disney staff; before that, the company was making massive donations to the bill’s supporters and authors.
Anyway, DeSantis is still trying to convince everyone that he’s the great warrior against “wokeness” and savior of children, keeping kids from learning gay and trans people exist.
In attacking Nikki Haley for not being transphobic enough, he took things a step further, suggesting that Disney’s evil master plan was actually to turn kids trans.
“Nikki Haley sided with Disney,” DeSantis whinged. “She invited them to South Carolina, even though they were involved in transing kids.”
Yes, Ron DeSantis just tried to make “trans” a verb. Which, of course, is not a thing and definitely not a thing Disney is doing. Acknowledging the existence of gay or trans people can give young people words to describe their own experiences or just give them a more complete picture of the world in which they live, but it does not make anyone gay or trans.
This is a classic Republican culture war move, though: ignoring facts, logic, and basic common sense to accuse your opponent of doing something that’s not just not true, but legitimately impossible.
For her part, Nikki Haley responded to that weird statement the only way she knows how anymore: directing viewers to her new website, DeSantisLies.com. A better person would call out DeSantis’ lies about trans people and not just defend her own transphobia but, well, this is Nikki Haley we’re talking about.
(featured image: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
