Gay Republicans are shocked that they are collateral damage in the DeSantis/Trump feud. What did they expect?

A recent conflict between FL Gov Ron DeSantis supporters and gay Republicans teaches an important lesson about those in our community who turn on their own. 

From Mediaite:

Log Cabin Republicans, the largest LGBT Republican organization in the U.S., condemned Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis after his campaign posted an ad attacking former President Donald Trump’s connections to the LGBT community. The bizarre ad, which was posted by the DeSantis War Room to Twitter on Friday, attacked Trump by playing a 2016 clip of him saying, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” 

 Trump made the comments following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead. The ad also showed clips of Trump with transgender Republican Caitlyn Jenner, before boastfully displaying a string of headlines that referenced DeSantis’ “draconian” and “evil” anti-LGBT policies.

“Today’s message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate,” the Log Cabin Republicans said in a statement. “Republicans and other commonsense conservatives know Ron Desantis [sic] has alienated swing-state and younger voters.” The organization said that while “conservatives understand that we need to protect our kids, preserve women’s sports, safeguard women’s spaces and strengthen parental rights,” DeSantis’ “extreme rhetoric has just ventured into homophobic territory.”

 . . .Charles T. Moran, the national president of the group, also condemned DeSantis in his own post.“You could have gone after radical queers, @RonDeSantis – but instead you went after the ones who win the @GOP votes and get Republicans elected. People like me,” he wrote. “Wrong fight to pick, bud.”

The ad in question is below:

To wrap up “Pride Month,” let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…

pic.twitter.com/FT7LdW4vls

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 30, 2023

 

As you can probably guess, DeSantis's ad has opened up an online war between his people such as aide Christina Pushaw and gay Republicans such as former Trump official Richard Grenell. Below is just a snippet from Twitter:

They all go on and on like this and it's delicious. THIS particular part below caught my eye because it signifies the essence of the entire situation:

David Leatherwood is co-chair of a far-right group called Gays Against Groomers. According to The Advocate:

The founder of Gays Against Groomers, Jaimee Michell, and her partners are former ultra-MAGA Trump followers who spread anti-transgender propaganda with QAnon conspiracy theories and links to extremist militias, according to a Media Matters for America investigation published last week. In response to accusations that it spreads homophobia and transphobia, GAG claims that, as a “coalition of gay people,” it and its members cannot possibly spread anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda.

 Furthermore, they claim that any attack on the group is homophobic. However, GAG is not a grassroots initiative but a right-wing project seeking to gain political and financial advantage by using anti-trans rhetoric, according to the left-leaning media watchdog. GAG was formed last year “to protect the kids” from “sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization,” Michell claims, and it has gained prestige in right-wing circles along with Chaiya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok, which also attacks the LGBTQ+ community. Both have promoted the use of the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer.”

 . . . Leatherwood began receiving attention for right-wing troll behavior online. Like Michell, he has ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement. On December 14, 2020, he spoke at an event hosted by Roger Stone. Also like Michell, Leatherwood celebrated the January 6 insurrection, praising the violent rioters, according to Media Matters. 

Queerty describes Leatherwood as a "gay Trump superfan" and gave a few examples of his unhinged tweets attacking Black Lives Matters, giving out COVID misinformation, and the following, which is highly ironic:

So David Leatherwood and other gay Republicans are angry that the groomer narrative and other ugly stereotypes they helped conservatives cultivate against other LGBTQ people has been turned on them. 

 

You dumbasses. What the hell did you think was going to happen? What did you expect?  You helped bigots spread lies against your own people and now you are surprised that the bigots have turned the lies against you? Are you actually surprised that you've been tossed over so needlessly?

I'm not surprised. Well, that's not completely true. I'm surprised that it happened so soon. You all have deluded yourselves into thinking that you are the "proper gays" and that those of us who don't fit your rigid ideas are damaging the community. You all have deluded yourselves into thinking if it weren't for us, the community would be accepted by folks like DeSantis, Pushaw, and other conservatives.

But you are now learning a valuable lesson. They never liked you. You think that you are above the rest of us, but in the eyes of DeSantis and company, you are just like us - "f@ggots, weirdoes, child groomers, and freaks" or to be succinct, "radical queers." 

The difference between you and the rest of us is that they couldn't openly despise you. This made you think that they didn't see you negatively.   You thought you were special. But you were never special. You were simply useful like a piece of toilet paper. And just like that toilet paper, when you are no longer useful, you are discarded. 

They don't care about you. They never did. And us - the LGBTQ people who you have maligned - don't care about you either.

So now what are you going to do?