Governor DeSantis Joins Backlash Against Pride Month and Designates June for “Biblical Marriage”

In another sign of efforts by conservative politicians and clergy to discredit and eradicate June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis released a proclamation declaring June as “Faith and Family Month.” In the Declaration, DeSantis declared that “the biblical family unit became the primary God-ordained earthly institution providing the model for a prosperous society.”

DeSantis’ declaration smacks of hypocrisy at best because he violates so many “biblical” commands on a daily basis.

For example, the Bible (Hebrew Bible and Christian Testament) instructs us to treat strangers as ourselves. It has its roots in the Hebrew Bible concerning dealing with outsiders. It is specifically associated with the Golden Rule and is echoed by Jesus in the Christian Testament.

Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a foreigner sojourns among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner who sojourns among you must be treated as one of your native land. Love them as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

As governor, Ron DeSantis was responsible for passing the nation’s toughest and most aggressive state-level crackdown on undocumented immigrants, hiring state and local law enforcement officials and allocating millions of dollars to detain them, imprison them, and deport them from the United States.

I don’t think his actions would be considered “biblical” in the loosest sense.

And the biblical command to “care for the least among you” derives from Jesus’ teaching on the Last Judgment in the book of Matthew, which explains that serving marginalized people and communities is the same as directly serving Jesus:

Matthew 25:40: “The king will answer, ‘Truly I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”

Least of us, in a biblical context, are mentioned as hungry, thirsty, outsiders, naked, sick, or imprisoned.

Governor DeSantis has consistently rejected expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. His actions denied hundreds of thousands of low-income Floridians any form of health insurance. DeSantis makes Florida one of ten states that still refuse to accept the expansion.

“Biblical Marriage”

Well, one doesn’t have to be a Bible scholar to know that our society does not and has not followed many of the principles the Bible dictates regarding marriage. Let’s look at some religious teachings, many pointing out that the institution of marriage was constructed quite differently from what is considered “traditional” today.

Approximately 4000 years ago, Abraham (commonly referred to as the “father of the Jewish and Arab peoples” and the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims) was a distant ancestor of Noah’s son Shem.

When his wife Sarah (who was actually his half-sister with a common father) was unable to conceive, as it is written, Sarah asked Abraham to have a child with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, who gave birth to a son, Ishmael. Soon after, Sarah also conceived a son, whom she and Abraham named Isaac. After the birth of Isaac, Abraham banished Hagar and Ishmael to the desert.

In Deuteronomy 25:5: “When brothers live together and one of them dies and they have no son, the dead man’s wife may not be married to a stranger outside the family. Her husband’s brother will go to her and take her to himself and do the duty of her husband’s brother to her.”

And in Deuteronomy 25:6: “And it shall be that the firstborn that she shall bear shall bear the name of her dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.”

And what about the biblical commandment involving husband and wife having sex during a woman’s period?

Leviticus 20:18: “If a man lies with a woman during her menses and uncovers her nakedness, he has made a fountain of her nakedness and he has opened a fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from their people.”

Additionally, I think that many women today, of all sexual and gender identities and religious backgrounds, may find difficulty in Ephesians 5:22:

“Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and he himself is its savior.”

And, Mr. DeSantis, do you really preach the commandment to women in 1 Corinthians 14:33-35:

“As in all the churches of the saints, women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not allowed to speak, but they should be subject, as the law says. If they want to know anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in a church.”

I wonder how many parents actually subscribe to Exodus 21:15 and 17, which indicate:

“And whoever hurts his father or his mother, he must be put to death, and whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death.”

In fact, some biblical scholars interpret the relationship between David and Jonathan and Naomi and Ruth as romantic love.

In 1 Samuel 20:16-17: “So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, ‘The Lord requires this from the hands of David’s enemies.’ And Jonathan vowed again to David his love for him, because he loved him with his own life.”

Jonathan also made a covenant with David. Later when Jonathan was killed, David mourned his death with these words in 2 Samuel 1:25-26:

How the heroes fell in the war! Jonathan was killed in your high place. My brother Jonathan, I grieve for you; You were very nice to me. Your love for me was better than the love of women.”

Naomi and Ruth alike loved each other romantically. In Ruth 1:14:

“And they lifted up their voices, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but clung to Ruth (Naomi).”

The word “klung” in Hebrew is “the floor” The same word is used in Genesis 2:24 to describe Adam’s feelings for Eve. Interestingly, the vow Ruth made to Naomi is one of the vows exchanged at many weddings for opposite-sex couples:

Ruth 1:16-17: “Do not press me to leave you or turn back from following you! Where you go I will go; where you stay I will stay; your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die – there I will be buried. May the Lord do the same to me, and more, if you partake of death too!

I would ask Mr. DeSantis and his supporters, what biblical marriage values ​​and principles are they referring to? Do they prefer that men engage in polygamous relationships like Abraham? What happens if you marry your step sister? I don’t hear any so-called “Judeo-Christian” leaders calling for men in childless marriages to take concubines, and once they conceive, to banish them and their children from their cities, or for men to marry the widows of their dead brothers, even when the men are already married.

When was the last time we expelled a married couple from our community for having sex during a woman’s period? Should we really kill the indomitable youth? Is this how we do and should define “traditional marriage” and “traditional family” today? And can we just block out the verses about David and Jonathan and Naomi and Ruth?

With the recent actions of DeSantis and all other ultra-conservative Christians, a critical question should be addressed. While they certainly and unequivocally have the right to say what they want and support the organizations and causes of their choice, the reality is that every month has already been designated, at least in practice, as “heterosexual and cisgender” Pride Month.