Democrats called out a GOP candidate for secretary of state in Missouri over a recently posted video in which she advised voters not to be “weak and gay.”
In the video posted on her X account Sunday, Republican Valentina Gomez is seen running down a street, wearing a bulky vest, with the song “The Show Goes On” by rapper Lupe Fiasco playing in the background.
“In America, you can be anything you want,” Gomez says. “So don’t be weak and gay. Stay f—ing hard.”
Democrats and LGBTQ rights groups have ripped Gomez over the comment.
“To all LGBTQIA Missourians, your existence should not be used as a political football,” Missouri state House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (D), also a candidate for Missouri governor, said in a post on the social platform X Tuesday.
“You’re loved & belong in Missouri & I won’t stop until our laws reflect that.”
“So refreshing to see a female GOP candidate who never served in the military doing the whole veteran cosplay, stolen valor, bigotry as a substitute for strength routine as well as any man,” former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) said Tuesday in a post responding to the video from Gomez.
Gomez shot back at Kander in a reply, stating that she serves “Jesus Christ and the people of Missouri.”
“My brother is a current service member, and the vest is to make my runs harder,” she said. “You should probably get one too since you suck at baseball.”
“I also wear body armor when I run sometimes,” Kander responded in another post. “Usually for fitness, not for bad David Goggins impressions. Good luck with your burning need for Internet Fame. Oh, sorry, I mean with your ‘campaign.’”
Goggins is an ultra-marathon runner and retired Navy SEAL.
Lupe Fiasco’s X account said Tuesday the rapper’s team is “aware and currently taking action” in apparent reference to the outcry over the video.
Brandon Wolf, the national press secretary for the LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), also responded to Gomez’s video in a post on X Tuesday.
“‘Don’t be weak and gay’ supremely underestimates the strength required to coexist with idiots like this every day,” he said.
Earlier this year, Gomez posted a campaign video of herself lighting LGBTQ-inclusive books on fire.
“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” she said in the video.
