DeSantis Joins Pride Backlash & Designates June for “Biblical Marriage”

In yet another sign of conservative politicians and clergy attempting to discredit and eliminate the month of June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis released a proclamation declaring June as “Faith and Family Month.” In the proclamation, DeSantis declared that “the Biblical family unit became the initial God-ordained earthly institution providing the model for a thriving society.”

DeSantis’ proclamation smacks of hypocrisy at best since he violates many “Biblical” decrees on a daily basis.

For example, the Bibles (Hebrew Bible and Christian Testaments) command us to treat the stranger as oneself. This is rooted in the Hebrew Bible regarding the treatment of outsiders. It is connected specifically to the Golden Rule and echoed by Jesus in the Christian testaments.

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

As governor, Ron DeSantis led the charge to pass the nation’s strictest and most aggressive state-level crackdowns on undocumented immigrants by deputizing state and local law enforcement officers and allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for rounding them up, incarcerating them, and deporting them out of the United States.

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

And regarding the Bible’s command to “take care of the least among you” stemming from Jesus’ teaching on the final judgment in the Book of Matthew explaining that serving marginalized people and communities is equal to serving Jesus directly:

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

The least among us, in Biblical contexts, referred to people who are hungry, thirsty, outsiders, naked, sick, or imprisoned.

Governor DeSantis has constantly rejected expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. His actions have denied hundreds of thousands of low-income Floridians any form of health insurance. DeSantis has turned Florida into one of only ten states that still refuses to adopt this expansion.

“Biblical Marriage”

Well, one does not have to be a biblical scholar to know our society does not and has not followed many of the principles the Bible dictates on issues of marriage. Let’s look at some of the religious teachings, many pointing out that the institution of marriage was constructed very differently from what some today consider as “traditional.”

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

When his wife Sarah (who in fact was his half-sister having a common father) was unable to conceive, as it is written, Sarah told Abraham to conceive a child with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, who birthed a son, Ishmael. Soon afterward, Sarah also conceived a son, whom she and Abraham named Isaac. After Isaac’s birth, Abraham banished Hagar and Ishmael into the desert.

In Deuteronomy 25:5: “When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.”

And in Deuteronomy 25:6: “And it shall be that the first-born whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel.”

And what about biblical injunctions on husbands and wives engaging in sexual intercourse during a woman’s period?

Leviticus 20:18: “If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.”

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

“Wives, be submissive to your 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 is himself its Savior.”

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

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

I wonder how many parents actually subscribe to Exodus 21:15 & 17, which dictates:

“And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”

Actually, some biblical scholars interpret the relationships 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, ‘May the Lord require it at the hands of David’s enemies.’ And Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.”

Jonathan also made a covenant with David. When Jonathan was later killed, David bemoans his death with these words in 2 Samuel 1:25-26:

“How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women.”

Naomi and Ruth likewise loved one another romantically. In Ruth 1:14:

“And they lift up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth clung unto [Naomi].”

The word for “clung” in Hebrew is “dabaq,” the very same word in Genesis 2:24 to illustrate Adam’s feelings toward Eve. Interestingly, the vow Ruth made to Naomi is the vow exchanged in many marriage ceremonies for different-sex couples:

Ruth 1:16-17: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”

I would ask Mr. DeSantis and his supporters, to which biblical marriage values and principles they are referring to? Do they prefer that men engage in polygamous relationships like Abraham? What about marrying your half-sister? I’m not hearing any so-called “Judeo-Christian” leaders calling on men in childless marriages to take on mistresses, and once they conceive, to exile them and their children from their towns, or for men to marry the widows of their deceased brothers, even when the men themselves are already married.

When was the last time we banished a married couple from our communities for having sexual relations during the woman’s period? Should we really kill recalcitrant young people? Was this how we do and should define “traditional marriage” and “traditional families” today? And should we simply block out the verses recounted about David and Jonathan, and Naomi and Ruth?

With the recent actions taken by DeSantis and all the other ultra-conservative Christians, a critical question must be addressed. While they certainly and clearly have the right to say what they wish and support organizations and causes of their choice, the reality is that every month already has been designated, at least virtually, “Heterosexual and Cisgender” Pride Month.