Prominent Broadway actor Denée Benton likened Florida’s rightwing governor Ron DeSantis to a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard at Sunday night’s Tony awards ceremony, drawing applause and roars of approval from the audience.
Benton, known for her stage roles in Hamilton as well as Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, took aim at the Republican presidential hopeful and his policies attacking minority groups as she announced an award for theatrical excellence for a Florida high school teacher from the town of Plantation.
She said: “While I am certain that the current grand wizard, I’m sorry, excuse me, governor of my home state will be changing the name of this following town immediately, we were honored to present this award to the truly incredible and life-changing Jason Zembuch-Young, enhancing the lives of students at South Plantation high school in Plantation, Florida.”
There were gasps from some in the crowd, followed by laughter and lengthy applause.
DeSantis has curtailed Black voters’ rights, restricted conversations of race and sexuality in Florida’s classrooms and workplaces, and rolled back protections for the LBGTQ+ community and other minority groups as he attempts to prove his extremist credentials to Republican voters in pursuit of his party’s presidential nomination.
Benton’s comments also came the day after a group of DeSantis supporters was spotted waving Nazi flags and banners supporting the governor at the entrance to Disney World in Orlando.
DeSantis is feuding with the theme park giant over his ’don’t say gay’ law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and he has not responded to calls from Democrats or civil rights groups to condemn either Saturday’s demonstration or previous gatherings of Nazi sympathizers in central Florida.
He is also being sued for his “unauthorized alien transportation program” in which groups of South American asylum seekers have been moved around the country in planes chartered by the state of Florida and dumped in states and cities run by Democrats without prior notice.
Critics have highlighted the parallels between the DeSantis program, which he sees as a protest to President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, and the reverse freedom rides from the civil rights era of six decades ago.
Similar to the false promises of accommodation, jobs, clothing and food allegedly made to lure the DeSantis groups of migrants, white supremacist groups in the 1960s – including the Klan – bussed Black families out of southern states to the north with assurances that a better life awaited them.
Benton’s comments on Sunday were broadcast live to the nation on a CBS telecast of the Tony awards from Manhattan. The 31-year-old actor was educated at Carnegie Mellon University, which partnered with the Tonys to honor Zembuch-Young for his work creating a diverse and inclusive theater at his school and in summer camps, including shows staged entirely in American sign language (ASL).
“I didn’t start out with a mission of: let’s be as inclusive as we possibly can. I’ve always championed the underdog because I kind of relate to that,” Zembuch-Young told the Associated Press last month.
“If there’s somebody that’s standing in front of you and they want to work, well, let’s put them to work and let’s figure out a way to have them be as successful as they possibly can.”
DeSantis’s media office did not respond to Benton’s comments. But Never Back Down, a political action committee supporting the governor’s run for the White House, criticized her in a tweet.
“Liberal ‘elites’ can’t stand how effective Ron DeSantis is at defeating their attempts to sexualize and indoctrinate your children,” it wrote, repeating previous messaging from DeSantis acolytes that opposition to his anti-trans policies equates to “grooming”.
