Colorado GOP Calls LGBTQ+ People ‘Groomers,’ Pushes To Burn Pride Flags | EUROtoday

The Colorado Republican Party kicked off Pride month by describing LGBTQ+ folks as “godless groomers” and calling for Pride flags to be burned.

The celebration despatched out a fundraising electronic mail early Monday with a collection of false claims that baselessly equate LGBTQ+ folks with pedophiles — rhetoric that dates again to anti-gay activist Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” marketing campaign within the Nineteen Seventies.

“The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children,” learn the e-mail, which was signed by state GOP chair and congressional candidate Dave Williams.

The electronic mail additionally referred to as LGBTQ+ folks “creeps″ and “reprobates,” and included a hyperlink to a sermon, prefaced with a thumbnail studying “God Hates Flags,” by evangelical pastor Mark Driscoll, who final yr additionally declared a “war on the LGBT agenda.”

The message closed by promising that the celebration would search “every opportunity” to work with lawmakers to ban the “barbaric” apply of offering gender-affirming take care of transgender youth.

In addition to the e-mail despatched on Monday, the Colorado GOP made a number of posts on X (previously Twitter) earlier this week railing towards Pride month.

After 9News reporter Kyle Clark first reported on the inflammatory fundraising electronic mail, the official Colorado Republican Party account posted a GIF of flames with the message, “Burn all the #Pride flags this June.” The celebration went on to repost a number of posts demonizing Pride month, together with some by the inflammatory anti-LGBTQ+ account LibsOfTikTookay.

Last month, the Colorado GOP despatched out a separate electronic mail warning in regards to the risks of “LGBTQ indoctrination” in public colleges and claiming that Democrats needed to “turn more kids trans.” The celebration urged Colorado dad and mom to take away their children from public colleges after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, the primary overtly homosexual man elected governor within the U.S., signed a invoice into legislation that prohibits discrimination on the premise of gender expression in class, preempting insurance policies that will search to ban academics from utilizing college students’ chosen title and pronouns.

“We make no apologies for saying God hates pride or pride flags as it’s an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority, and the only backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the fake news media, and weak Republicans who bow down at the feet of leftist cancel culture,” Williams wrote in an electronic mail assertion to HuffPost. He added that the celebration will work with state legislators and pursue poll initiatives to attempt to block entry to gender-affirming care for kids within the state.

Williams, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), is working in Colorado’s fifth Congressional District — which incorporates Colorado Springs, the place 5 folks had been killed and practically two dozen had been injured in a mass capturing at LGBTQ+ nightclub Club Q in 2022. It’s a aggressive race, and Williams’ main challenger, Jeff Crank, is a conservative podcast host.

The state, although house to some arch-conservative enclaves, can also be recognized for its progressive insurance policies defending transgender residents. In 2023, Colorado turned the primary state within the nation to explicitly require many insurance coverage suppliers to cowl gender-affirming care of their lowest-tier plan, as “essential health benefits.” With the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ laws throughout the nation, together with in a number of bordering states, Colorado has turn out to be a secure haven for households of transgender youth.

Valdamar Archuleta, the president of Colorado’s Log Cabin Republicans chapter, a conservative LGBTQ+ group, was fast to surrender the state celebration’s electronic mail.

“I have been an avid critic of where the celebration of Pride has gone in recent years and a firm supporter of protecting children from environments and entertainment that are of an adult nature,” Archuleta posted on X on Tuesday. “However, this email went too far and was just hateful.”

Archuleta, an overtly homosexual man, is working unopposed within the Congressional District 1 Republican main. He instructed 9News on Wednesday he believes that Williams is making an attempt to emulate Trump’s character and techniques, and that the state’s GOP messaging of “God Hates Flags,” is a transparent nod to the same hateful slogan utilized by Westboro Baptist Church picketers.

The main election for all eight of Colorado’s congressional districts will probably be on June 25.