Ron DeSantis unloaded on transgender activists following the Dylan Mulvaney controversy, saying that asking people to pretend a man dressed up as a woman is anything other than a man is asking them to be “complicit in a lie.”
The Florida governor made the comments during an interview with Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson.
It is an incredible takedown of the fantasy world trans activists and pronoun-pushers – a minuscule percentage of the population – are trying to force on everybody else.
But it also amounts to a commonsense pushback, an articulate means of explaining simple reality to the extremist advocates that is sometimes sorely lacking from the right.
Johnson began the segment addressing “the greater issue of transgenderism” and noted the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light partnership had really set off those who oppose the agenda being pushed into their everyday lives.
Mulvaney, a Trans TikTok sensation, took part in a Bud Light promotion in a pair of videos just weeks ago. The videos received significant pushback from the public.
“What do you think about men taking the role of women and taking really women’s places in advertising, and sports, playing against them?” Johnson asked. “I mean it seems like an existential threat to women, as fathers of daughters.”
And DeSantis was immediately off and running, calling it a “total fraud.”
EXCLUSIVE: Gov. DeSantis on Dylan Mulvaney —
“It’s a total fraud.”
“Are we going to be a society based on truth or based on deceit? If you take a man and they dress up as a woman you’re asking me to be complicit in a lie. I refuse to do that.
The truth will set you free.” pic.twitter.com/KoYQWk0gC8
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 18, 2023
RELATED: Bud Light Partners With TikTok Trans Activist for New Ad Campaign
DeSantis Hammers Dylan Mulvaney, Trans Activists
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly expanded on his view that the movement to normalize the transgender community and force it into the sports and entertainment arena is a “total fraud.”
He immediately launched into a takedown of Lia Thomas, the biological male who made a mockery of NCAA women’s swimming.
“I mean you have a swimmer that competes on the men’s team for three years at Penn, and then switches to the women’s team, and then wins the 500-yard freestyle – national championship for women?” he said.
“When you’re a mediocre male swimmer and now you win the women’s?”
DeSantis noted that he had issued a proclamation declaring the second-place finisher – an actual female collegiate swimmer named Emma Weyant – to be the “rightful winner” of the NCAA championship 500-yard freestyle event over Thomas.
Weyant is a native of Sarasota, Florida.
By allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the NCAA is destroying opportunities for women, making a mockery of its championships, and perpetuating a fraud.
In Florida, we reject these lies and recognize Sarasota’s Emma Weyant as the best women’s swimmer in the 500y freestyle. pic.twitter.com/tBmFxFE3q6
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 22, 2022
“By allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the NCAA is destroying opportunities for women, making a mockery of its championships, and perpetuating a fraud,” DeSantis said in a tweet announcing the proclamation at the time.
“In Florida, we reject these lies and recognize Sarasota’s Emma Weyant as the best women’s swimmer in the 500y freestyle.”
RELATED: Ron DeSantis Makes A Stand For Women’s Sports – Declares Emma Weyant The True NCAA Swimming Champion Over Lia Thomas
DeSantis to Trans Activists – Stop Forcing Your Lies on Everybody Else
DeSantis concluded that yes, biological males are using the woke trans movement as a means to take away opportunities from women in the sports and entertainment world.
He contends that while that is an important battle, there might be something more important to address at a very basic level.
“But I think there’s also just the issue of – are we going to be a society based on truth or we gonna be a society based on deceit?” DeSantis continued.
“And if you take a man and they dress up as a woman, and you tell me I have to accept that they’re a woman, then you’re asking me to be complicit in a lie, and I just refuse to do that.”
“If you take a man and they dress up as a woman and you tell me I have to accept that they’re a woman, then you’re asking me to be complicit in a lie,” @RonDeSantisFL tells @bennyjohnson.
“I refuse to do that.”
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) April 18, 2023
It’s such a basic articulation of how a vast majority of Americans feel.
A recent poll from the government-funded news outlet NPR shows that an overwhelming majority – 63% of Americans – oppose allowing transgender women and girls (biological males) to compete on teams that align with their gender identity.
Rasmussen Reports, meanwhile, conducted a poll indicating 54% of Americans support a boycott of Anheuser-Busch following the Dylan Mulvaney debacle, while 40% said the partnership made them less likely to purchase Bud Light.
Conversely, just 19% said the videos made them more likely to buy that brand of beer.
This is the message. Right here. It’s not just about female sports or even minors. The entire premise is a dastardly and civilization destroying lie that needs to be uprooted full stop. https://t.co/RFdKclvekj
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) April 19, 2023
The company’s stock market value tanked by $6 billion in the initial days of the boycott but recovered a bit after its CEO issued a statement saying they never intended to divide Americans by partnering with Mulvaney.
DeSantis argued that in order to counter the lies and deceit being perpetuated in society today, one must simply convey the truth.
“We’ve gotta tell the truth, I think that the truth will set you free, and let’s just be honest about what’s going on here,” he said.
What a concept.
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