Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is not sharing how he would respond if one of his children turned out to be gay or transgender.
During an interview with Time that was published on Wednesday, the 2024 presidential hopeful was asked “how he’ll respond if one of his children turns out to be gay or trans.”
DeSantis responded, “Well, my children are my children.”
“We’ll leave that between my wife and I,” he added.
DeSantis was also asked about Florida’s restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and whether they violate parents’ rights.
“As a parent right now, I can’t take my 6-year-old daughter and get her a tattoo, even if I want to do that,” the governor responded.
He continued:
“You don’t have the right to do things that are going to be destructive to kids. I think that some of these parents are being told by physicians who are making a lot of money off this that you have to do this, otherwise your kid can end up doing something like commit suicide. I think that they get bullied into thinking this is the right decision.”
Additionally, DeSantis insisted it is “totally appropriate for us to say that protection of children means that those things are not appropriate.”
He also highlighted a move by experts in Europe away from a merely affirmative approach.
According to Time, DeSantis argued the government has “an interest in preventing ‘sterilizing children at age 13 or 14’ or performing sex-change surgery on minors.”
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper last month, DeSantis was asked about his policies and how transgender people would be treated if he was president.
“I would respect everybody, but what I wouldn’t do is turn society upside down to be able to accommodate [what] is a very, very small percentage of the population,” DeSantis responded.
