Gay Republican candidate melts down when he figured out that his party is homophobic

A gay Republican politician in Colorado was apparently shocked by a recent email sent out by state party head Dave Williams, which called LGBTQ+ people “evil” and “woke creeps,” Westword reports. Now the gay conservative is rejecting any endorsements from the state GOP following this incident.

Valdamar Archuleta, president of LGBTQ+ conservative group Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado and current candidate for the state’s First Congressional District, said, “It’s alienating a large group of people within the party. Not just LGBT people, but our friends, our allies, our families. This was a massive mistake. We need to work on unifying the party and growing the party, not isolating people with divisive messages like this.”

Related: State GOP tells people to “burn all Pride flags” during June

The Republican Party wrote that “godless groomers” are demonic and “ultimately harm our children.”

Archuleta said on X how he rejects the Colorado GOP endorsement following this email and posted a three-minute long video where he called the state GOP email “troubling” and said he has asked to be removed from their list of endorsees.

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After a lot of thought and consideration, reflecting on yesterday's email from the @cologop with the subject line "God Hates Pride", I can not accept their endorsement. Here's my full statement:

Yesterday the Colorado State GOP sent out an email with the subject line “God Hates… pic.twitter.com/n7zq6qfFI4

— Valdamar Archuleta (@Archuleta4CO) June 4, 2024

Archuleta himself, though, has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. He previously blamed LGBTQ+ individuals for the Club Q shooting and said that queer people are “groomers” – or child sex abusers – a negative stereotype that has been used to justify hatred and discrimination.

“If you’re really upset about being called a #groomer maybe you should step back and reevaluate your activity around children,” Archuleta wrote on Facebook just a week after the mass shooting. “At the very least for appearances sake.”

“The biggest threat to increasing violence towards the LGBT community are LBGT Activists and Organizations who make LGBT people look insane, unreasonable, and menacing,” he wrote several weeks later. “We will face more hate in the future directly due to these activists and organizations.”

Now, though, he’s saying that the state GOP went too far.

“That email was blatantly hateful,” he says now. “There’s really no condoning it in any way. We need new leadership, and we need to start looking for new leadership now.”

While Archuleta is shocked by the email – which had the subject “God Hates Pride” – this isn’t even the first time that the state party used this kind of rhetoric. Williams sent out a similar email last year that characterized the community as demons and degenerates, a word associated with the Third Reich. In 2020, he tried to push for a bill that would ban marriage equality in the state.

“We make no apologies for saying God hates Pride or Pride flags, as it’s an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority,” Williams said.

“Messages of hate, bigotry, and government control over people’s lives are not Republican or Christian,” Republican Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon said.

“Colorado Republicans who care about public safety, property taxes, reducing homelessness, and supporting the constitution have kids, grandkids, friends, neighbors, or they themselves are part of the LGBTQ+ community. How do messages of hate serve them and our communities?”

Laydon concludes, “If you want to support kids, quit telling them that they’re worthless for how God created them and encouraging them to kill themselves. Thanks, Dave Williams, for the reminder to actually study God’s incredible love for all people and for Coloradans, especially Republicans, to get huge Pride flags.”

The email continues by parroting the infamous “groomer” line, alleging that queer people want to hurt children. This has been widely debunked.

“God Hates Flags” The @cologop’s mass email for Pride Month attacks “godless groomers” who want to “harm our children.” #copolitics pic.twitter.com/Bach2NaxIc

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) June 3, 2024

It concludes by sharing a video with a thumbnail saying “God Hates Flags” – a name riffing on the infamous Westboro Baptist Church slogan “God Hates F*gs.” The video consists of Pastor Mark Driscoll saying that the pride flag represents “the demonic realm” and “human indecency.”

It is unknown what demonic realm he is referring to.

The party doubled down on social media, making a post on X where they call for all Pride flags to be burned.

Burn all the #pride flags this June. https://t.co/AqwnudUpYq pic.twitter.com/lLeJMtrhR1

— Colorado Republican Party (@cologop) June 3, 2024

They have also retweeted several other posts that call the LGBTQ+ community abominations and demonic.

The state GOP made headlines last month after telling constituents to take their kids out of public schools lest they be turned transgender.

The X account shared several posts from hate influencer Chaya Raichik, who goes by “Libs of TikTok” online. Her posts have resulted in death threats sent to LGBTQ+ individuals and bomb threats sent to schools across the country.

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