GLR July-August 2023

BTW

like a loser all the way, with DeSantis a punchline in his feath erweight match with Mickey Mouse. But the war metaphor isn’t quite right; it’s really about DeSantis seeking ways to take re venge on Disney for its opposition to his “Don’t say gay” bill last year. And he’s been positively Ahab-like in this quest. His attempt to deprive Disney of its special zoning status was thwarted by a neat amendment to the bilaws by Disney’s board, leaving Ron a laughingstock. His latest gambit is a proposal to build a state prison on public land right next to Disney World. How exactly that harms Disney isn’t entirely clear. They would probably just turn it into an attraction: “See the Great Dungeon from Rapunzel’s Tower after dark!” Hypocrisy Watch This heading could apply to so many of the items that we feature here. And yet, the word “hypocrisy” does n’t quite capture the spectacle of men who promote a form of anti-LGBT hatred while engaging in precisely the behavior that they’re demonizing. Perhaps the word “mendacity” would suf fice, but only as uttered by Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , with complete disgust. Here are four cases in point: 1. Dateline Texas Take, for example, former Texas state Rep. Bryan Staton (R), a vocally anti-LGBT politician whose cause célèbre was the plague of adults “grooming” minors for sex. The term is a right-wing dog whistle, though it’s not at all clear why they attribute the practice of “grooming” to liberals. Sta ton is only the latest in a series of conservative politicians who’ve been caught engaging in precisely this form of behav ior. His offense was to invite a nineteen-year-old staff member

That’s What You Saw? The host of The Michael Knowles Show on the right-wing site DailyWire devoted a show to in forming viewers that there’s a new kind of pornography out there that uses hypnosis to turn cis men into trans women. The eerie power of this porn is such that it doesn’t just entertain the passive viewer but makes him want to do quite the opposite of what most men are doing while watching porn. But what force could cast such a spell? Knowles admitted that he’s so worried about being hypnotized by these apps that he was afraid to con duct any research, which could explain his deeply uninformed remarks. He had a guest on his show to help out, one Genevieve Gluckof Redux magazine, who labeled it “hypnosis porn” and explained that it works through the repetition of insults spoken by a narrator who says things like “You’re a dumb bimbo slut; you want to be a girl,” over and over. It could be willful igno rance or just plain ignorance on Ms. Knowles’ part, but obvi ously these sites are targeting that small subset of men who get off on humiliation—along with the porn, of course. Ahab in Florida It looks like the arch-nemesis of LGBT rights, Ron DeSantis, is running for president, but in a way that’s re assuringly klutzy so far. Going to war with Disney World looks

TheG & LR

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