Former pastor Ron Peri, an appointee to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Disney oversight board, is being called into question for homophobic comments and the speculation that tap water makes people gay.
Peri is one of five people brought on by DeSantis after push-back over Disney’s former chairman speaking out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. On Monday, a bill was signed allowing the park’s Reedy Creek Improvement District to remain autonomous, but with the newly installed overlording of DeSantis’ board at the helm of governing power.
On Friday, a CNN investigation into Peri’s background uncovered a 2022 Zoom discussion in which a wealth of anti-gay comments were made by the new appointee which seem to fall in line with DeSantis’ campaign against the LGBTQ community.
“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 says in the video, which can be seen below.
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In addition to overseeing DeSantis’ “de-wokeified” Disney World, Peri also serves as CEO of The Gathering – a Christian ministry focused on outreach to men, per CNN’s reporting.
In the Zoom call referenced above, Peri can also be heard saying “There are a lot of unhealthy effects of a homosexual lifestyle. There are diseases, but it goes beyond that.” In yet another Zoom call referenced by The New Republic, he branches off to the subject of abortion, comparing it to “Holocaust-levels of genocide.”
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