The Netflix documentary Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate, (https://www.netflix.com/title/81331646) portrays Berlin, Germany during the Weimar Republic as a LGBTQ haven. The nightclub Eldorado was one of the many places in 1920s Berlin where trans and gay people could gather safely. In a few short years, being gay or trans in Hitler’s Germany would be deadly. As The Rolling Stone’s Chris Vognar wrote recently: “The film never comes out and yells it, but it is also a reminder of the Final Solution tenor that still accompanies much anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric and, increasingly, policy.”
Nowhere are anti-gay and anti-trans policies rearing their ugly heads then in the state of Florida. Perhaps not since the heyday of Topeka, Kansas’ Pastor Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps, and the Rev. Jerry Falwell blaming the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks on gays and lesbians, have we seen anything as viciously gay-and-trans-bashing as a recent vile anti-Trump homoerotic attack ad from Team Ron DeSantis.
The DeSantis War Room, a rapid-response Twitter account of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, recently posted an ad -- originally posted by the pro-DeSantis @ProudElephantUS Twitter account -- touting what gay and Trans Republicans are calling the “most extreme slate of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in history” and claims its policies “threaten trans existence,” Erin Reed, of ErinInTheMorning, recently reported (https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/gay-and-trans-republicans-shocked).
The ad, which one reporter called “the closest thing to what a Benito Mussolini TikTok ad would’ve looked like,” is aimed at attacking former president Donald Trump. The DeSantis ad claims that Trump is pro-gay as exemplified by “his purported support of Pride and the LGBTQ+ community.” This despite Trump’s anti-gay record that had, in 2019, the head of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) calling President Trump “the worst president on LGBTQ issues ever.”
Searching for answers to a flailing campaign by a most unlikeable character, Team DeSantis is clearly reaching out to the darkest most anti-social corners of the Internet. While it probably goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – DeSantis has no doubt sowed up the Incel vote!
Zeeshan Aleem, an MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor described parts of the ad:
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.”
According to Erin Reed’s reporting, a number of gay and transgender Republicans, who have supported DeSantis, were horrified by the ad:
Richard Grenell, a prominent gay Republican political operative and former member of President Trump’s cabinet, also expressed consternation, labeling the ad as “undeniably homophobic.” It’s noteworthy that Grenell has a history of criticizing “wokeness” and “trans radicalism,” and has been an advocate for various anti-LGBTQ+ measures, including bans on gender-affirming care and the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law.
Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender Republican political commentator, stated that the candidate had “hit a new low.” It’s important to highlight that Jenner herself has been a consistent proponent of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ policies, including some featured in the ad. She has often contended that supporting LGBTQ+ individuals in schools equates to “grooming,” backed drag bans, and previously expressed being a “big supporter of Ron DeSantis” specifically for his “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law.
Even the Log Cabin Republicans, the principal LGBTQ+ Republican organization, chimed in, denouncing the ad as “divisive and desperate” and labeling DeSantis’ policies as “naive” and “politically stupid.” Intriguingly, the organization had previously lauded Governor DeSantis for some of the very anti-LGBTQ+ policies featured in the ad. For instance, Log Cabin Republicans have participated in anti-drag protests and support bathroom bans.
Christina Pushaw, the DeSantis campaign’s rapid response director, who defended the ad as a critique of “identity politics.” “Opposing the federal recognition of ‘Pride Month’ isn’t ‘homophobic,'” Pushaw tweeted. “We wouldn’t support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either… It’s unnecessary, divisive, pandering. In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison” (https://twitter.com/ChristinaPushaw/status/1674956053987958787?s=20).
Metro Weekly’s John Riley noted that after being asked about the ad by Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union,Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded:
I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders and just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space.
Which is, again, who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve? I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America.”
DeSantis’ all-in attacks on gays, lesbians and trans people have caused many to fear for their livelihoods, their children’s safety, and their lives. One bill signed by DeSantis allows any doctor or medical professional to deny healthcare to a person based on their own religious or moral beliefs. One of DeSantis’s bills allows a non-approving parent in a divorce to take emergency custody of a transgender child. It didn’t take long for the Weimar Republic’s openness to turn into Hitler’s homicidal regime. DeSantis’ homoerotic foray appears to be seeding the ground for the elimination of trans people.