Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a new interview that as president he would ensure that controversial transgender policies in the U.S. military would come to an end.
DeSantis made his comments during an interview on Tuesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
“Well look, in the military, it’s all about the mission first,” DeSantis said. “So there’s a whole bunch of reasons why you focus on Mission First. People’s individuality, you do have to check that at the door. And that’s not the only example. There’s a whole host of other examples. So I think the military culture is unique in terms of that.”
“Now, in terms of the larger issue, the question is, what role does someone that’s a man have in women’s activities, even if they conceive themselves to be a woman?” he continued. “I think it’s wrong to have men compete in women’s sports, I understand some of those men conceive of themselves differently. But it’s not fair to the girls who are competing. It’s not fair to the women athletes, the swimmers who lost that national championship, to the Penn swimmer, I mean, they’ve been training too.”
DeSantis also slammed institutions that have forced girls to have to share locker rooms with men who say they are women.
“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 said.
.@RonDeSantis on transgenderism: "In the military, it's all about the mission first…People's individuality….you do have to check that at the door…What role does someone that's a man have in women's activities?…I thin it's wrong to have men compete in women's sports" pic.twitter.com/gmaAs8yPjK
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 18, 2023