'A lot of unhealthy effects': DeSantis-appointed Disney board member suggests tap water turns people gay

A man appointed to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Disney oversight board has a history of making anti-LGBTQ comments, including a claim that tap water could be turning people gay, CNN reported. Ron Peri, an Orlando-based former pastor and the CEO of a Christian ministry, is one of five people who will oversee the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the government body that has given Disney unique powers in Central Florida for more than half a century, according to CNN.

In a January 2022 Zoom call, Ron Peri asked, "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 said. “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.”

"But the big part I would suggest to you, based upon what it's saying here, is the removal of constraint," he continued. "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."

As CNN points out, testosterone levels in men have been inexplicably dropping in recent decades, but not at the 50 percent rate that Peri claims. Also, there's no proof that a drop in testosterone in men can lead to them being gay.

In the same speech, Peri called homosexuality "shameful," and said it leads to disease.

"There are a lot of unhealthy effects of a homosexual lifestyle. There are diseases, but it goes beyond that," he said, adding that gay people don't care about the future since they can't have children.

From CNN: "Peri's appointment to the oversight board comes after a long-standing battle between DeSantis and Disney over the Parental Rights in Education Act – which critics have called Florida's 'Don’t Say Gay' law. The law bars schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms and in older classrooms that do not meet yet-to-be-defined standards."

Read the full report over at CNN.