(NewsNation) — The presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing criticism from a prominent group representing LGBTQ conservatives, which says a political advertisement attacking Donald Trump’s past positions on LGBTQ rights “ventured into homophobic territory.”

Ken Cuccinelli, founder of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, says the ad was focusing on the “legitimate” difference between DeSantis’ and Trump’s stance on transgender issues.

“I think there’s a division between the candidates here that is a legitimate point of discussion, and Ron DeSantis has been the leader in the country in fighting to protect women’s sports, children from sexualization, that’s part of the agenda that he’s fighting with this video here,” Cuccinelli said Monday on “The Hill on NewsNation.”

The “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account shared the video Friday — the last day of June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month — that features footage of Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” Trump had been pledging protection from terrorist attacks weeks after the shootings at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida

The video also highlights “LGBTQ for Trump” T-shirts sold by the former president’s campaign and his past comments saying he would be comfortable with Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, using any bathroom at Trump Tower and OK with transgender women competing one day in the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time.

The video then suddenly veers in a different direction, accompanied by dark, thumping music and images of DeSantis.

It promotes headlines that DeSantis signed “the most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history” and a “draconian anti-trans bathroom bill.” The images are spliced together with footage of muscular, shirtless men and several Hollywood actors, including Brad Pitt, seen wearing a leather mask from the movie “Troy.”

The video drew immediate criticism from prominent LGBTQ+ Republicans, including the Log Cabin Republicans, which bills itself as the nation’s “largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives.”

“Today’s message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate. Republicans and other commonsense conservatives know Ron Desantis has alienated swing-state and younger voters,” the group said in a tweet, adding that DeSantis’ “extreme rhetoric goes has just ventured into homophobic territory.”

“I don’t think that he is” going too far with the ad, Cuccinelli said. “This issue is perfectly legitimate.”

The former Virginia attorney general who previously served in the Trump administration added that DeSantis has separated himself from the rest of the GOP field on the issue. The Florida governor is polling second behind Trump, according to a RealClearPolitics average.

“You can disagree or agree with them or think this went too aggressively or not, but Ron DeSantis is the leader on the leading cultural battle of our time,” Cuccinelli said. “It’s a spiritual battle, it’s a cultural battle and Republican voters care a great deal about it. He is the, without question, leader on this issue both substantively and in the campaign.”