The ongoing reboot of the Ron DeSantis campaign continues, with a TIME Magazine interview that focuses on family issues.
Those following the 2024 campaign know that the Governor’s three children, Madison, Mason and Mamie, have been central not just to campaign speeches but to the actual events themselves. Along with First Lady Casey DeSantis, they have shown up at many events.
While DeSantis was willing to discuss many issues regarding his family with reporter Molly Ball, others were off the table, including how Mr. and Mrs. DeSantis would handle finding out if one of their children was gay or transgender.
“Well, my children are my children,” DeSantis told TIME. “We’ll leave that — we’ll leave that between my wife and I.”
DeSantis, who has signed off on legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education bill, has mocked efforts to accommodate students who may identify as part of the LGBT community through using preferred pronouns.
“We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago?” DeSantis said when signing the Parental Rights expansion earlier this year. “Now this is something, they’re having third graders declare pronouns. We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida.”
The Board of Education, which has members appointed by DeSantis, expanded the Parental Rights in Education bill to cover the entirety of K-12 this year, stretching it from the original K-3 framework.
Students have also been prohibited this year from using a preferred nickname without a signed form of parental authorization.
DeSantis also signed legislation this year banning gender-affirming care, saying it was a move to “outlaw the mutilation of minors.” SB 254 bans physicians from providing people under the age of 18 access to any “sex reassignment prescriptions or procedures,” but contains exemptions for minors born with a “medically verifiable genetic disorder of sexual development.”
Though the state is asserting a compelling interest in the sexual orientation and gender identity of minors, the Governor’s comments to TIME suggest that despite his public policy stance, he and the First Lady regard issues pertaining to their family as a private matter.
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