Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made his first visit to the early voting state of Iowa to book tour stop at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport, Iowa, US (Image: Reuters)
Ron DeSantis, a potential candidate for the 2024 US presidential elections, has come under attack for introducing laws that curb the freedoms of transgender individuals.
President Joe Biden took aim at a potential rival in the 2024 election on Monday when he described Florida’s rules banning young transgender people as “close to sinful.”
In an interview with The Daily Show late at night, Biden said he had been comfortable around sexual minorities since he was in his final year of high school and saw two men kiss for the first time.
His father, he said in a clip released by The Daily Show, told him: “Joey, it’s simple – they love each other.”
Biden said that his approach to LGBT issues was “simple”.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a same-sex or heterosexual couple. You should be able to get married. What’s the problem?”
But turning to the highly politicized treatment of the issue in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to launch a White House challenge, Biden said, “What they’re doing is terrible.”
Biden did not specify what exactly he was referring to, but DeSantis has raised his political profile by pushing specifically against support for transgender people.
State lawmakers have banned discussion of sexuality and gender identity in most schools. And the state’s medical authority has prohibited hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors.
Biden said, “What’s happening in Florida is, as my mother says, verging on sinful.”
“It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I’ve decided I want to be a man or I want to be a woman or I want to change.’
Biden said he thought the pushback was “brutal”.
“What are they thinking here? They’re human. They love. They have feelings.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)