Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that he wears a “badge of honor” over criticism from Hollywood stars who oppose his state’s parental rights legislation.
“There’s even people in Hollywood that are opposed to providing protections for parents and enforcing parents’ rights,” DeSantis said. “The one thing I’ll say about that is if people who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars and as heroes and all that—if those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor.”
The governor signed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill into law Monday which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-3 classrooms and requires school districts to notify parents of changes or services that revolve around their child’s physical or mental health.
Oscars hosts Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes repeatedly chanted the word “gay” in protest of the bill during Sunday’s 2022 Academy Awards. DeSantis’ spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said “CRINGE” in response via Twitter and noted in a separate post that “being attacked by these degenerates is a badge of honor.” (RELATED: Legacy Media Adopts Slogan To Describe Florida Legislation, But There’s A Big Problem With ‘Don’t Say Gay’)
Critics and establishment media have dubbed the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, with claims that the bill prohibits the word “gay” from from being used in public schools. These claims sparked Florida Democrats, Disney and celebrities to repeatedly chant the word “gay,” though the bill allows for teachers to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in fourth grade and beyond.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek called DeSantis in early March to express his disappointment in the bill, to which the governor agreed to meet with him and LGBTQ senior members of the company to address their concerns.
The governor accused a reporter of pushing a “false narrative” for referring to the legislation as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill at a March 4 press conference.
“You can create a false narrative, you can stage a protest, you can do all of those things,” DeSantis pushed back. “But you’re not telling the truth about what’s actually there…there’s this massive gulf between what [the bill] actually says with respect to these very young kids versus what some of these protests at the capitol are about.”