The Republican Party has revved up its anti-LGBTQ agenda in recent years, mostly under the banner of a backlash against trans rights and new trans-inspired gender norms. On Thursday, that renewed animosity appeared to kick into an even higher gear when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign reposted a video that all but called for the extermination of trans people.
The vile video reflects DeSantis’ campaign strategy — staking out a lane to the right of former President Donald Trump on major culture war issues. It’s unclear if there are any limits on what he’ll do in order to claim that territory.
DeSantis represents the tip of the spear of the right’s overwhelming assault on trans rights.
The video, originally posted by the pro-DeSantis @ProudElephantUS Twitter account, is a kooky, meme-filled clip that speaks in the vernacular of the “extremely online” right-wing set. It starts off by showing clips of Trump making statements in support of the LGBTQ community, such as when he said at the Republican National Convention in 2016 that he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens,” a statement made weeks after the mass shootings at Pulse Nightclub, a gay club in Orlando. The campaign video also shows another 2016 clip of Trump saying he would be OK with Caitlyn Jenner, a trans former athlete and conservative media personality, using any bathroom in the Trump Tower. (In that interview, Trump had framed North Carolina’s controversial law restricting bathroom access for trans people as economically costly for the state.)
It then pivots to a barrage of images and headlines that portray DeSantis as a ruthless alternative to Trump’s tolerance. While a dark, thumping beat throbs in the background, the video celebrates DeSantis’ zealotry by quoting headlines and clips of pundits criticizing DeSantis, referring to him signing the “most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history” and producing some of the “harshest, most draconian laws that literally threaten trans existence.”
Interspersed among these clips are images of men presumably intended to convey DeSantis’ persona, which include: Christian Bale in the film “American Psycho,” in which he plays an unfeeling sociopath who murders homeless people; Brad Pitt as the warrior Achilles in the film “Troy”; Leonardo DiCaprio as a cocaine-addled, wife-beating Wall Street fraudster in “Wolf of Wall Street”; and the GigaChad meme, a photoshopped depiction of an imperious-looking ultra-muscular man originally associated with incel forums. DeSantis is also at other points likened to an alligator and to the character of Maverick in “Top Gun.”
To wrap up “Pride Month,” let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 30, 2023
https://t.co/FT7LdW4vls
As some have observed, the funny thing about this video is that stylistically it’s sort of camp, and the emphasis on muscular men alongside a techno beat that could plausibly be heard at a gay club gives it a homoerotic vibe. Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, responded to the video by tweeting: “This is actually very gay.”
Unfortunately, the video does have to be taken seriously, and there is zero ambiguity about the message: DeSantis represents the tip of the spear of the right’s overwhelming assault on trans rights.








