Why I, as a Jewish Floridian, cannot support Ron DeSantis

Article by Luiz Gandelman, TPT Staff Writer and Interim Chair of HSDA’s Jewish Caucus

Misusing public funds for campaigning, and racist comments, and leaving his state in the dust for political stunts, alongside clandestine bills with no public oversight. These are all things that Ron DeSantis has done, but that unfortunately a plurality of politicians all around the world have done. What sets DeSantis apart from other politicians, even those in his own party, is the scapegoating war he has waged on the LGBTQ community, primarily transgender people.

Ron DeSantis has repeatedly claimed that “Florida is where woke goes to die”. While “wokeness” is a political and controversial idea, one thing is a proven fact: wokeness has never killed anyone. Despite this, Ron DeSantis has placed wokeness on a pedestal as the greatest evil plaguing Florida and something that must be fought against by everyone. In this “battle”, his main target has been the LGBTQ community. It started with the all-so-famous “Don’t Say Gay Bill” (HB 1557), which suppressed teaching about anything “Sexual” (with LGBTQ topics being placed under that) in lower education. It has been left loose on purpose, leaving even high schools and institutions of higher learning in a tricky spot. DeSantis also prohibited usage of Public University Funds for Diversity efforts, effectively politicizing and eliminating them in Florida Public Education. A prime example of this is the New College of Florida, where DeSantis removed the previous notoriously liberal and artsy administration and replaced them with his friends, who completely changed the school, against the wishes of most students. These policies have resulted in books being banned all over Florida, such as The Life of Rosa Parks and even Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb”.

DeSantis has issued laws banning transgender people in sport, despite the fact that the Orlando Sentinel states that there are two transgender women athletes in Florida. Ron DeSantis passed a state law targeting two trans women. While Florida deals with crime and homelessness and hurricanes, Ron DeSantis signs bills that target Transgender people, more specifically two individuals. A bill was passed prohibiting gender affirming care in those under 18, even with parental consent (SB 254, the same bill that bans teens from attending drag shows). The same bill stated that children who were “suspected” of being “mutilated and harmed” (which it includes gender affirming care as) have a legal right to be taken by the State Government from their parents . The same man who wants to ban books to give parents a say wants to take transgender children away from their parents. To make this even worse, he wants to create a registry of Transgender Floridians, something draconian and simply scary. A proposed DeSantis Law also would have required all bloggers or journalists who write about Ron DeSantis register in a state database. In America, where our first amendment rights are used every day, this man wants to take them away, whether by banning education on certain topics or by suppressing dissent.

I am a Jewish teen. My family, my ancestors, perished in the Holocaust. I grew up hearing stories about the Holocaust, and have extensively studied the build up to it, and how it all happened. Hitler started like this. He banned books that had Jewish or Western ideology, and he began keeping a tab on Jewish people. Kidnappings by the state were not uncommon, and any dissent, both to him and his ideology, were immediately shut down. To be completely honest, I do not think Ron DeSantis would, even if he could, commit an atrocity like that to the LGBTQ community. But despite that, he is taking the first step, which is already bad enough itself. Events like Kristallnacht and the pogroms were prompted by this government induced hatred and othering of Jewish people. Ron DeSantis has othered the LGBTQ community and passed policies that make their very existence political and taboo. He has scapegoated Transgender people and passed a wide range of ridiculous policies against them, fighting against issues that don’t exist. Never Again means never again shall a group of people be discriminated against en masse and by the law. As a Jewish descendant of Holocaust victims, I feel obliged to speak up. I am not LGBTQ, and quite frankly do not always understand LGBTQ issues, but I know that they are people. People who deserve to live freely as who they are, and people who do not deserve to be targeted by a State Government or forced to leave the state, which is a recommendation from the NAACP. Ron DeSantis is NOT a Nazi, and his policies cannot be compared to the Holocaust, but we cannot remember the Holocaust without fighting scapegoating and demonization of a people, so we have a moral responsibility as Jews to stand against Ron DeSantis, because even though you and I may not be LGBTQ, LGBTQ people are our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even sometimes family. When voting in 2024, remember that many people stood by and watched as Hitler committed his atrocities in the Holocaust. Don’t be that bystander. Stop this hatred and scapegoating where it is, because we cannot let this go further, as us Jews know better than anyone else how dangerous scapegoating and othering can be.