Ron DeSantis's Director Is Literally Cheering on LGBTQ Parents Fleeing Florida

[Nevilledog]

https://newrepublic.com/post/171979/pushaw-desantis-lgbtq-parents-florida

No paywall
https://archive.is/RGJoV

Team Ron DeSantis continues to demonize everyday Americans, this time targeting his own state’s residents. On Saturday, Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for the Florida governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate, celebrated the idea of people fleeing Florida and the measures DeSantis has supported with the explicit goal of making their lives worse.

In response to a headline that a majority of Florida LGBTQ parents are considering leaving the state in response to the repressive “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the DeSantis right hand had one simple reaction: Bye!

The actual study Pushaw was smugly responding to found that nearly one-quarter of LGBTQ Florida parents feared harassment, with parents of school-age children in public schools expressing the greatest concern for their safety. Over half of the parents surveyed have considered moving out of Florida, while 17 percent have already taken steps to do so.

Such a reaction illustrates why some donors have recently started to sour on Ron DeSantis’s political prospects. In tacking further and further right by pursuing repressive policy after repressive policy—and surrounding himself with people of the same persuasions—he displays how shockingly little he cares for millions of Americans. In pretending to be the more “reasonable” Trump, he appeals neither to actual Trump supporters, who would have no reason to vote for the second-rate version, nor to the rest of potential voters who are simply not interested in such radical, out-of-touch politics that treat millions of hardworking Americans like pawns at best and garbage at worst.

*snip*

[Irish_Dem]

1. So many elected GOP leaders who HATE Americans.

It is mind boggling.

[Matthew28]

4. They're the American taliban

I am serious about comparing these people to the taliban as that is what they want for America.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Yes they hate Americans, want total control and to torture and kill them.

Yes we are becoming like our enemies.

[PortTack]

2. This will backfire much like his immigrant relocation BS...such fools

[ret5hd]

3. Disneys only available "Prince Charming". ...

after DeSantis is finished:

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Florida is now a toxic brand

I will avoid business with Florida if at all possible.

[Chainfire]

7. DeSantis has nothing to lose in Florida. He terms out this time.

What Floridians think about him doesn't matter anymore. (even if it did before) He is just using the people as a springboard to the White House. We are all his pawns to move about the board without the fear of loss. It is a hell of a position you put yourself in when you let the Fascist bastards completely take over your state. Let that be a warning to the rest of you. It hasn't been that long since Florida was blue...

I hope that the rest of the people of the nation can give old Ron a lesson in humility.

[roamer65]

8. We need to start keeping a list of these ilk so we can deny them climate migration.

Make them stay and be shark bait.

[2naSalit]

9. Self deportation...

Just like Rmoney 'splained it.

[tanyev]

10. Then she'll be really excited when lots of women of childbearing age,

college students and people who value education and libraries start fleeing the state. I wonder how many are just hanging on to wrap up this school year?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. The right's short-sighted war on LGBTQ Americans

The right's war against LGBTIQ individuals is disgusting.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/17/desantis-house-republicans-transgender-florida/

In January, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute in concert with Clark University published an analysis of perceptions among LGBTQ Floridians of their state’s new law targeting discussion of same-sex relationships in schools. The sample size was relatively (and probably necessarily) small, a bit over 110 parents in the state who identify as LGBTQ+. But the findings were still dramatic: more than half indicated that they’d thought about leaving the state and 1 in 6 had already made plans allowing them to do so.

“It is absolutely terrifying living in Florida and it has gotten progressively worse,” one respondent to the survey said. “We have been discriminated against and verbally attacked in the past in Florida. Now that we have kids, we are much more concerned about our safety and the well-being of our kids.”

For some reason, this survey was picked up last week by the website “Florida’s Voice,” a right-leaning organization that often echoes and amplifies the rhetoric of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). It tweeted out its summary: “Survey finds majority of ‘queer parents’” — scare quotes in the original, of course — “consider leaving Florida because of law barring sexual orientation/gender identity instruction in K-3.

That legislation was signed into law by DeSantis last year and is poised to be expanded to all grade levels. On Saturday evening, DeSantis staffer and adviser Christina Pushaw shared the Florida’s Voice tweet with her followers, adding only one thing: An emoji of a hand waving, presumably goodbye to those parents concerned about the legislation.