Love Wins. Love ALWAYS Wins.
Ron DeSantis' hateful agenda is unsustainable over the long haul
Floriduh Gov. Ron DeathSantis may not know much. Still, he does share one common trait with the rest of today’s GOP- the ability to lie shamelessly about his political enemies, even when he’s aware that everyone knows he’s lying. It’s not that Gov. DeSantis is misremembering the truth. It’s that he’s willfully flogging it for the express purpose of manipulating perceptions of reality. After all, he who controls the propaganda battle controls the narrative, eh?
“Truth” is whatever Gov. DeSantis needs it to be, honesty be damned. “Propaganda” is what “groomers” like Disney executives use to sexualize their films and convince young children that “gay is the way.”
You and I may recognize that as bullshit, but millions buy into it. And they’re convinced that Disney, along with America’s teachers, are feverishly “grooming” and “sexualizing” America’s young children. Their nefarious goal? To create the next generation of LGBTQ activists who’ll push the “Homosexual Agenda” on vulnerable and impressionable young ‘uns.
Because, as any REAL American knows, no child would EVER question their sexuality or gender identity without the idea somehow being implanted in their brain by Liberal “groomers.”
While campaigning for Nevada GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt in Las Vegas on Wednesday, DeSantis once again criticized Disney. The company, which is one of Florida’s largest employers, has denounced DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that prohibits certain discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state’s public schools.
“One of the things that really bugged me were these videos with all these people that are high up at Disney talking about how [it] was their intention to inject sexuality into the programming for these very young kids,” DeSantis said at the rally.
The governor was seemingly referring to Karey Burke, a Disney executive who said she has two queer children and supports featuring “many, many” LGBTQ characters in future projects.
Of course, being LGBTQ is only as weird and wrong as one chooses to make it- and Gov. DeSantis has decided to build his political brand on demonizing those whose only “crime” is wanting to be their authentic selves. It’s cynical and mean-spirited, but Gov. DeSantis doesn’t care about anything or anyone that doesn’t impact him directly. He’s found his hot-button issue, and he’ll ride that filly as far as he can.
Meanwhile, many Floridians will suffer because of his meanspirited and self-interested war on Disney. His successful effort to strip Disney of their special tax district will cost Floriduh taxpayers upwards of $1 billion. Still, Gov. DeSantis has bigger things to worry about than the tax bills of his constituents. Not that he cares about them, anyway. The people of Floriduh are merely the residue that Ron DeSantis will use to fuel his political ambition, which extends far beyond Floriduh.
“When we were young, you could watch cartoons without having to worry,” DeSantis said. “Now parents have to sit there and worry about, ‘What are they trying to inject in?’ ‘What type of ideology are they trying to pursue?’ And that is wrong.’”
When we were young, cartoons advanced racial and gender stereotypes, but that was OK- because they were the stereotypes held by the majority. They also pushed a Conservative ideology, but that was also considered acceptable. America was a very White, Conservative, and rabidly heterosexual place. Or so the White, Conservative, and rabidly heterosexual believed. Who could possibly argue with such a wholesome belief system?
No one wanted to talk about anything that contradicted the prevailing prejudices, but that didn’t mean that LGBTQ people didn’t exist. Likewise, it didn’t mean that alternative lifestyles and sexualities didn’t exist. They weren’t convenient to talk about, and so few people did.
And so it meant that when people like me left home to go to college and ran into LGBTQ people for the first time, we had NO idea what we’d crossed paths with. No one had educated us about this side of life…because they figured if they ignored it, then it didn’t really exist.
Funny how that strategy didn’t work out so well for anyone.
At least now, people are willing to acknowledge and talk about the reality that the world isn’t all White, Christian, Conservative, and heterosexual. It’s not all white picket fence, 2.5 children, a father as the breadwinner, and the mother as the homemaker. Sure, those things still exist, but there’s a growing recognition that America is no longer one-size-fits-all, like it or not. There’s an understanding that America contains a much broader spectrum than people like Ron DeSantis are willing to acknowledge. And that ignoring that reality makes it no less real.
Cartoons from our childhood weren’t the White bread and heterosexual bliss that Conservatives like Gov. DeSantis are selling. No, there was cross-dressing, flirtations with same-sex attractions, and other behaviors that would give DeSantis and others the vapors. But he’s choosing to remember what’s convenient and ignoring the reality that’s more…troublesome.
Bugs Bunny regularly cross-dressed and male characters tried to fuck him[.]
Indeed he did. And today, the Frozen princess might have had a girlfriend.
Oh, the humanity….
How about we stop pretending that the “good ol’ days” were all that good? My uncle Joe, who we all thought was…um, different…was probably gay, though no one would ever talk about it. I was too young to understand it, but I always knew there was something different about him. In retrospect, it doesn’t matter; it shouldn’t have then and it certainly doesn’t now.
The truth about the past is not what Social Conservatives think it is, nor is it what doctrinaire, mean-spirited, and self-serving despots like Ron DeSantis believe it to be. It was never the clean, tidy, White-picket-fence world they believed it to be. They created that world because they ignored and suppressed the human reality that bubbled just below the surface. We all had an Uncle Joe in our families; it’s just that people like that were considered an embarrassment whose “differences” were acknowledges only in hushed tones.
Today, the difference is that people are more willing to acknowledge the LGBTQ community and accept the reality that these people exist. Moreover, more Americans are willing to acknowledge that the LGBTQ community has the RIGHT to exist.
The acknowledgment of alternative lifestyles and sexualities is merely recognizing something that has always existed. Humanity has never been entirely heterosexual. As far back as the ancient Greeks and Romans, homosexuality has been documented and, in some cases, accepted.
People are people. Love is love. We all deserve to be our authentic selves, whatever that might mean. I’m heterosexual and married to a woman. You might choose a different path, and that’s OK. If the path you choose to travel brings you happiness and fulfillment, then who am I to tell you that you’re “wrong” or “sinful?”
Frankly, my dear, it’s none of my damned business. Take your shot at happiness. Love who you choose. I hope you find what you’re looking for, and that you’ll have the inner strength to tell Gov. DeSantis and haters like him where they can stuff their judgment and hatred. Or, even better, to ignore them altogether. Their oxygen is the acclaim of people like them. Turn your back on the haters, and they’ll soon fade into irrelevance.
Cultivate love, because in the end, love will always win. Everything else is just so much Sturm und Drang.
Love hard. Love well. Love honestly. And when your race is run, may you be surrounded by those you love and who love you.