The team behind Peaky Blinders have slammed Florida governor Ron DeSantis for using their character in an anti-LGBTQ+ campaign video.
Over the last few years, the Republican figure and his political allies have ruthlessly targeted Florida’s LGBTQ+ community with horrific legislation and rhetoric.
From the disturbing ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law to the various bills attacking the rights of trans youth, the presidential hopeful has made it his mission to alienate the state’s LGBTQ+ citizens.
On the last day of Pride Month, the 44-year-old’s campaign team shared a video targeting his Republican rival and former US president, Donald Trump, for his alleged “support” of the community.
At the start of the video, Trump is shown informing a crowd that he’d “do everything” in his power “to protect LGBTQ citizens.”
The video then shifts to him promising that Caitlyn Jenner would be able to use any bathroom at Trump Tower and that trans women would be able to compete in the Miss Universe competition.
However, things take a bizarre turn when the video begins to gleefully highlight all of the hateful and dangerous methods DeSantis has used to target the LGBTQ+ community.
Towards the end of the video, photos of shirtless bodybuilders and characters from various films and TV series flash across the screen alongside headlines calling the Florida governor evil.
Some of the characters that were included in the aforementioned video was Achilles from Troy, Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wallstreet, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders.
Shortly after the video was released, LGBTQ+ activists slammed DeSantis for his hateful rhetoric toward the community.
Openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN: “I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning, thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America.”
The creatives behind Peaky Blinders also condemned the aforementioned video in a statement via their social media channels.
“On behalf of the partners of Peaky Blinders – Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Caryn Mandabach Productions, Tiger Aspect Productions and Banijay Rights – we confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby’s character used within the video posted by Ron DeSantis’ campaign was obtained without permission or official licence,” they wrote.
“We do not support nor endorse the video’s narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner.”
In response to the show’s tweet, fans flocked to their mentions to call out DeSantis and conservatives for deliberately misinterpreting the character of Tommy Shelby.
One fan wrote: “How come they (mainly men eh) never understood that Tommy Shelby’s beliefs are in total opposition with fascism?? like the guy was an extreme left activist?? a communist?? then a MP for the labour party?? I mean, it’s pathologic denial at this point.”
Another fan tweeted: “Tommy Shelby was canonically LGBT friendly, but Ron DeSantis saw aLpHa MaLe Tommy edits and decided that was the way forward.”
— Peaky Blinders (@ThePeakyBlinder) July 5, 2023
Latest
