DeSantis Disney Oversight Appointee Called Homosexuality ‘Evil,’ Warned Tap Water Can Turn You Gay, New Report

A CNN K-File report out Friday details past attacks on the LGBTQ made by Ron Peri – who Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Monday to his new oversight board controlling Disney’s special tax district in the state.

Peri, described by CNN as “an Orlando-based former pastor and the CEO of The Gathering,” called homosexuality “evil” and spread conpsiracy theories suggesting tap water can make a straight person gay.

“So why are there homosexuals today? There are any number of reasons, you know, that are given. Some would say the increase in estrogen in our societies. You know, there’s estrogen in the water from birth control pills. They can’t get it out,” Peri declared in a January 2022 Zoom reviewed by K-FIle.

“The level of testosterone in men broadly in America has declined by 50 points in the past 10 years. You know, and so, maybe that’s a part of it,” he added, parroting regular talking points on the right about the so-called “decline of men.”

The far-right conspiracy theory that tap water can turn people gay links back to Alex Jones who declared chemicals in tap water were “turning the friggin’ frogs gay.”

“But the big part I would suggest to you, based upon what it’s saying here, is the removal of constraint. So our society provided the constraint. And so, which is the responsibility of a society to constrain people from doing evil? Well, you remove the constraints, and then evil occurs,” he added.

CNN noted that Peri also “called homosexuality ‘shameful,’ linking it to disease. ‘There are a lot of unhealthy effects of a homosexual lifestyle,’ said Peri. ‘There are diseases, but it goes beyond that.’”

In other remarks reviewed by CNN, Peri compared abortion to the Holocaust and blamed homosexuality for the fall of the Roman Empire.

DeSantis took a victory lap in recent days, declaring “there is a new sheriff in town” after signing a bill that ended Disney’s self-governance as retribution for the company coming out against a bill dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.