Gov. Ron DeSantis made no effort to hide his anti-LGBT views when he signed a proclamation declaring a ciswoman the “rightful winner” after she lost to a trans swimmer in a championship event.

Lia Thomas is a Penn swimmer who became the first trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship, USA Today reported. Emma Weyant is an Olympic silver medalist who swims for the University of Virginia.

Thomas beat Weyant in the NCAA 500-yard women’s freestyle swimming competition. Even so, DeSantis still declared Weyant the winner because she is a “native.”

"Since she is a native Floridian from Sarasota, I, Ron DeSantis, Governor of the State of Florida, do hereby declare in Florida that Emma Weyant is the rightful winner of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's 500-yard Freestyle," he wrote in the proclamation March 22.

"Florida rejects the NCAA's efforts to destroy women's athletics, disapproves of the NCAA elevating ideology over biology, and takes offense at the NCAA trying to make others complicit in a lie," DeSantis added.

DeSantis signed legislation prohibiting student trans athletes from participating in women’s sports last year. To make matters worse, he said he will sign the "Don't Say Gay" bill "relatively soon." If this bill becomes law, it would ban classroom discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation in grades K-3 and possibly more.

DeSantis claims that critics of the bill are “supporting sexual instruction for young kids.”

“Understand, if you are out protesting this bill you are by definition putting yourself in favor of injecting sexual instruction to 5-, 6- and 7-year-old kids," DeSantis said, according to USA Today. "I think most people think that’s wrong. I think parents especially think that’s wrong.”

DeSantis’ rhetoric though doesn’t match reality. The governor, and other Republicans, have conflated sexual orientation and sex education. In fact, Republicans had an opportunity to amend their bill to focus on sex education while it was making its way through the legislature. They voted it down.

This isn’t the first time Thomas has made headlines because of her gender identity. Some of her teammates publicly expressed concerns about sharing a locker room with her.

In January, parents of other Penn swimmers wrote to the NCAA and the school to express their concerns with the regulations that allow Thomas to compete against cisgender women and the precedent she is creating, which they described as a "direct threat to female athletes in every sport," according to the Washington Post.

However, there was one Olympic swimmer who defended Thomas, saying she “would not wish this experience on anyone.”

"I have great respect for Lia," Brooke Forde, who earned a silver medal at the Tokyo Games, told USA Today. "Social change is always a slow and difficult process, and we rarely get it correct right away. Being among the first to lead such a social change requires an enormous amount of courage and I admire Lia for her leadership that will undoubtedly benefit many trans athletes in the future."