GOP 'Weak and Gay' Candidate Takes to Social Media with More Homophobic Rhetoric

A GOP candidate for state office in Missouri took to X with a video that reiterates her campaign's slogan - "weak and gay" - and calls for Pride month to be renamed for a Trump-level vulgarity.

Valentina Gomez, perhaps best known for a campaign stunt in which she turned a flame thrower on a stack of books she claimed were LGTBQ+ literature, is running for Secretary of State in Missouri. In video posted on May 29, Gomez poses in front of an American flag and declares that "The weak and gay agenda is about to be shoved down our throats for the next month."

The timing - as well as the uninspired attempt at throwing shade a the queer community - suggests that Gomez is referring to Pride month, which is typically observed in June and involves community celebrations such as musical events and parades.

"Why don't we have a month celebrating American Nationalism?" the fervent Trump supporter demands. "Or a Family Month for all the mothers and fathers out there that have fought for their children?"

Such a "family month" would be a great idea - especially for lesbian mothers and gay fathers who have been challenged for custody of their children on the grounds of nothing more than their innate sexuality, or the same-sex parents that have undergone the enormous investment in time and money that IVF entails, or the couples that stood up to repressive state laws in order to win full marriage equality in order to ensure their parental rights would be recognized and respected.

Pride month, of course, celebrates those families, along with other members of the queer community and their achievements.

Those real-world aspects to Pride Month escaped Gomez, however, as her message spun out in an unexpected direction.

"Or even a pussy month," Gomez went on to add, "for all the pussies out there like Don Lemon."

Lemon, an openly gay man, served as an anchor on CNN until he was fired by the cable channel in 2023 after making comments seen as misogynistic.

Gomez then veered into more non sequiturs.

"I will never allow for children to be sexualized, groomed, and indoctrinated," she declared, evidently referencing baseless right-wing talking points that attempt to conflate LGBTQ+ civil rights with claims that children are somehow "turned gay" through public acknowledgement that queer people exist.

"And with all due disrepect," Gomez continued, "I am done peddling to the pedophiles this flag represents."

Gomez offered no examples of occasions when she previously "peddled to" any "pedophiles." The flag she referenced was presumably the six-colored Pride flag, a symbol of human diversity intended to celebrate a suite of qualities seen as represented by the LGTBQ+ community.

The stripes of the traditional Pride flag represent life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), art (turquoise), and spirit (violet). Modern variations of the flag, such as the Progress Pride flag, celebrate people of color with brown and black stripes, as well as transgender people, who are represented with the colors of the trans flag: Pink, baby blue, and white. Some Progress Pride flags also include a yellow field with a purple circle - the color and symbol of the Intersex Pride flag, which represents people born with both male and female sexual organs, or with ambiguous genitalia.

There is no flag for pedophiles, and none of the colors on the Pride flag represent pedophiles.

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of pedophiles are heterosexual, and sex crimes against children are typically crimes of opportunity rather than motivated by a child's gender. Such crimes tend to be perpetrated by family members or family friends, rather than by strangers at a parade.

Facts, however, played a less prominent part in Gomez' political ad than did a portrait of her posed with an assault weapon.

Gomez captioned the post containing the video with the far more succinct and cogent message, "Forget pride month. We're doing America First month🇺🇸".

The May 29 video was just the latest iteration of Gomez' political messaging. Earlier this month she posted a video that showed her running through a gay neighborhood clad in a bulletproof vest.

"In America you can be anything you want," Gomez declared in that video, before paradoxically adding, "so don't be weak and gay."

Gomez then hurled an f-bomb, saying: "Stay fucking strong."

Gomez, who was born in Colombia, is running for the seat being left vacant by GOP incumbent Jay Ashcroft's gubernatorial bid.

In at least one campaign video, however, Gomez was running alone. Telling the camera that it was 6 am, Gomez - the only person in sight - blamed the lack of cheering crowds not on the hour, but on the same "weak and gay" mob she seems to have decided are her personal nemeses.

In that video, Gomez also hurled another f-bomb at unseen (or imaginary) tormentors she claimed had disrupted what would otherwise have been a run crowded with "hundreds of patriots that wanted to join me".