David Furnish hits out at Ron DeSantis for ‘diabolically anti-Christian’ policies against LGBTQ+ people

Florida has passed laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and sex education

Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has “weaponised sexuality” and is “harnessing the hate of a vocal minority of extremists and pandering to fringe voters in a bid to gain power,” according to David Furnish.

The filmmaker and husband of Sir Elton John argued in an opinion piece in The Independent that the Republican governor has implemented a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ policies seeking to roll back the gains in acceptance and quality made during Mr Furnish’s lifetime.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the progress we’ve made in Britain and Canada,” Mr Furnish wrote. “If I was dropping my children off at the school gates in Florida, I doubt they’d feel the same level of safety and acceptance within their community.”

Over the last two years, Florida has implemented a string of laws lawsprohibiting classroom instruction on gender and sexual orientation, restricting gender-affirming care for minors, threatening drag shows, and preventing people from using the bathrooms and gender pronouns that accord with their identity.

On law, passed last month, allows doctors to refuse to treat people based on their individual political beliefs, which advocates say is a license to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

“This is one of the most diabolically anti-Christian pieces of legislation ever devised. It’s inhumane. Did we just step into a time machine and return to the dark ages?” Mr Furnish wrote in his opinion piece. “This barbaric man could be the next president of the United States.”

Last year, the state passed a “curriculum transparency” law which Mr DeSantis touted as a way to ensure schoolbooks are “free of pornography and prohibited materials harmful to minors, suited to student needs, and appropriate for the grade level and age group.”

In practice, the law has singled out books relating to LGBTQ+ identities and racial diversity for removal.

Mr Furnish wrote that The Family Book by Todd Parr, a title which celebrates the many different versions of loving family, and which has “brought my sons a great deal of comfort,” was among those on the chopping block in Florida.

The Florida laws have provoked strong opposition from medical organisations, civil rights advocates, and LGBTQ+ advocates alike.

In May, the NAACP formally issued a travel advisory warning that Florida was “openly hostile” to Black people, people of colour, and LBGTQ+ people.

The Independent has contacted the governor’s office for comment.