Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Missouri Republican candidate torches LGBTQ-inclusive books in viral video
0 views
Skip to first unread message
Leroy N. Soetoro
Feb 10, 2024, 7:06:57 PM2/10/24
to
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/missouri-
republican-candidate-torches-lgbtq-inclusive-books-viral-vide-rcna137715
A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state posted a viral
campaign video Tuesday lighting LGBTQ-inclusive books on fire with a
flamethrower.
“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of
state,” Valentina Gomez, 24, of St. Louis, said in the video on X,
Facebook and Instagram before she lit at least two books on fire. “These
books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will
burn.”
Gomez added “MAGA” and “America First” in the text of her post on X.
The video then abruptly cuts to an image of Gomez, whose campaign website
describes her as a real estate investor and financier, holding a large
gun. The two books she set ablaze appear to be “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ
Guide for Teens” and “Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia.”
X restricted the post’s visibility, adding a note that it “may violate X’s
rules against Hateful Conduct.”
Maicoll Gomez, Gomez's campaign director, said in an emailed statement
that the “message is simple.”
“You want to be gay? Fine be gay. Just don’t do it around children,” the
statement said. “Stop putting books in libraries about sexualization,
indoctrination and grooming of children. Children need to learn
mathematics, science, developing their people skills, getting fit, while
protecting their innocence. Not learning the ideologies that the radical
left loves to push on children. I am against all drag shows around
children, pride flags in classrooms, teachers with pronouns, people
wanting to ‘change’ genders, and people that can’t even define what a
woman is. If genitals don’t define gender, how does removing them affirm
it. I only fear God.”
Kathy Belge, one of the authors of “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for
Teens,” said Americans “should be concerned that a candidate for public
office not only thinks book burning is acceptable, but that it is
something that will help her get elected.”
“My book ‘Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Book for Teens’ was written to give
teens accurate and helpful information about what it means to be part of
the LGBTQ community,” Belge said in a statement to NBC News. “We discuss
important issues that teens face, like coming out, bullying, dating and
finding community and support. And yes, dealing with haters like this
political candidate.”
Belge added that LGBTQ teens are vulnerable, with 41% of them seriously
considering suicide in the past year, according to a survey last year from
The Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention
organization.
“I suggest this candidate leave queer kids alone and focuses instead on
the real issues that will make lives of people in Missouri better,” Belge
said.
Gomez’s video has garnered more than 800,000 views and thousands of
comments, from both critics and supporters.
“Excellent work, protect Children!” a commenter on Instagram wrote.
“Adults can do what they want, but stop indoctrinating children with
LGBTQ+ propaganda.”
However, others with varying political views disagreed with Gomez’s video.
“I’m republican. But burning books is not good,” another person wrote on
Instagram. “Make them where you have to be 18 to check them out or look at
them. Grooming is bad but burning books only makes people want them more.”
Some people compared Gomez’s actions to Nazi book-burning campaigns in the
1930s, when a student group burned tens of thousands of books in Germany
and Austria that were considered “un-German.”
A Twitter user noted that there’s a memorial in Berlin known as the sunken
or empty library dedicated to remembering the book burnings. A plaque
outside the memorial includes a quotation from the German writer Heinrich
Heine: “That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will
ultimately burn people as well.”
Gomez's campaign director declined to respond to the criticism.
Gomez’s website says she received an MBA in finance and strategy from
Tulane University and lists “protecting children against the transgender
agenda” and “protecting sports — there’s only 2 genders” among her key
campaign issues.
“Valentina vehemently opposes subjecting children under 18 to transgender-
related medical procedures, therapies, treatments, prescriptions, and
exposure,” her website says. “The physical and emotional scars endured by
our young ones in the name of the transgender industry are unacceptable
and must be halted.”
Gomez’s website echoes increasingly common inflammatory language used by
conservatives in recent years to describe transition-related medical care
for transgender minors. However, parental consent is required for minors
to receive any care, and major medical associations — including the
American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
American Psychological Association — support minors’ access to such care
and oppose laws restricting it.
In a video on her Instagram account, Gomez says she trusts three things:
“The Bible, X — thank you, Elon Musk — and my AR-15.”
In another, she says over video of her shooting firearms: “The First
Amendment lives on, and let me remind you that the Second one will make
sure it does.”
Gomez’s book-burning video is part of a larger national trend of
conservative candidates and lawmakers targeting books related to LGBTQ
people and race for removal from public and school libraries, arguing that
they are a form of “indoctrination” or are harmful for children.
Some, including Gomez, have even described LGBTQ-inclusive books and
curricula as sexually grooming children, invoking a decades-old false
moral panic about LGBTQ people.
During the 2022-23 academic year, Missouri banned 333 books, according to
a report from PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for free
expression in literature. Nationwide, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2023, a
total of 1,915 unique titles were challenged, a 20% increase over the same
period the previous year, according to a report from the American Library
Association. Many of the challenged books were titles related to LGBTQ
people or race or written by LGBTQ authors or people of color.
Book challenges have surged alongside legislation targeting LGBTQ people
and topics in schools. Sixteen states have laws that restrict how
sexuality and gender identity can be discussed or taught in schools, with
seven barring discussions of LGBTQ people or topics in some or all grade
levels.
--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
republican-candidate-torches-lgbtq-inclusive-books-viral-vide-rcna137715
A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state posted a viral
campaign video Tuesday lighting LGBTQ-inclusive books on fire with a
flamethrower.
“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of
state,” Valentina Gomez, 24, of St. Louis, said in the video on X,
Facebook and Instagram before she lit at least two books on fire. “These
books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will
burn.”
Gomez added “MAGA” and “America First” in the text of her post on X.
The video then abruptly cuts to an image of Gomez, whose campaign website
describes her as a real estate investor and financier, holding a large
gun. The two books she set ablaze appear to be “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ
Guide for Teens” and “Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia.”
X restricted the post’s visibility, adding a note that it “may violate X’s
rules against Hateful Conduct.”
Maicoll Gomez, Gomez's campaign director, said in an emailed statement
that the “message is simple.”
“You want to be gay? Fine be gay. Just don’t do it around children,” the
statement said. “Stop putting books in libraries about sexualization,
indoctrination and grooming of children. Children need to learn
mathematics, science, developing their people skills, getting fit, while
protecting their innocence. Not learning the ideologies that the radical
left loves to push on children. I am against all drag shows around
children, pride flags in classrooms, teachers with pronouns, people
wanting to ‘change’ genders, and people that can’t even define what a
woman is. If genitals don’t define gender, how does removing them affirm
it. I only fear God.”
Kathy Belge, one of the authors of “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for
Teens,” said Americans “should be concerned that a candidate for public
office not only thinks book burning is acceptable, but that it is
something that will help her get elected.”
“My book ‘Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Book for Teens’ was written to give
teens accurate and helpful information about what it means to be part of
the LGBTQ community,” Belge said in a statement to NBC News. “We discuss
important issues that teens face, like coming out, bullying, dating and
finding community and support. And yes, dealing with haters like this
political candidate.”
Belge added that LGBTQ teens are vulnerable, with 41% of them seriously
considering suicide in the past year, according to a survey last year from
The Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention
organization.
“I suggest this candidate leave queer kids alone and focuses instead on
the real issues that will make lives of people in Missouri better,” Belge
said.
Gomez’s video has garnered more than 800,000 views and thousands of
comments, from both critics and supporters.
“Excellent work, protect Children!” a commenter on Instagram wrote.
“Adults can do what they want, but stop indoctrinating children with
LGBTQ+ propaganda.”
However, others with varying political views disagreed with Gomez’s video.
“I’m republican. But burning books is not good,” another person wrote on
Instagram. “Make them where you have to be 18 to check them out or look at
them. Grooming is bad but burning books only makes people want them more.”
Some people compared Gomez’s actions to Nazi book-burning campaigns in the
1930s, when a student group burned tens of thousands of books in Germany
and Austria that were considered “un-German.”
A Twitter user noted that there’s a memorial in Berlin known as the sunken
or empty library dedicated to remembering the book burnings. A plaque
outside the memorial includes a quotation from the German writer Heinrich
Heine: “That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will
ultimately burn people as well.”
Gomez's campaign director declined to respond to the criticism.
Gomez’s website says she received an MBA in finance and strategy from
Tulane University and lists “protecting children against the transgender
agenda” and “protecting sports — there’s only 2 genders” among her key
campaign issues.
“Valentina vehemently opposes subjecting children under 18 to transgender-
related medical procedures, therapies, treatments, prescriptions, and
exposure,” her website says. “The physical and emotional scars endured by
our young ones in the name of the transgender industry are unacceptable
and must be halted.”
Gomez’s website echoes increasingly common inflammatory language used by
conservatives in recent years to describe transition-related medical care
for transgender minors. However, parental consent is required for minors
to receive any care, and major medical associations — including the
American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
American Psychological Association — support minors’ access to such care
and oppose laws restricting it.
In a video on her Instagram account, Gomez says she trusts three things:
“The Bible, X — thank you, Elon Musk — and my AR-15.”
In another, she says over video of her shooting firearms: “The First
Amendment lives on, and let me remind you that the Second one will make
sure it does.”
Gomez’s book-burning video is part of a larger national trend of
conservative candidates and lawmakers targeting books related to LGBTQ
people and race for removal from public and school libraries, arguing that
they are a form of “indoctrination” or are harmful for children.
Some, including Gomez, have even described LGBTQ-inclusive books and
curricula as sexually grooming children, invoking a decades-old false
moral panic about LGBTQ people.
During the 2022-23 academic year, Missouri banned 333 books, according to
a report from PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for free
expression in literature. Nationwide, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2023, a
total of 1,915 unique titles were challenged, a 20% increase over the same
period the previous year, according to a report from the American Library
Association. Many of the challenged books were titles related to LGBTQ
people or race or written by LGBTQ authors or people of color.
Book challenges have surged alongside legislation targeting LGBTQ people
and topics in schools. Sixteen states have laws that restrict how
sexuality and gender identity can be discussed or taught in schools, with
seven barring discussions of LGBTQ people or topics in some or all grade
levels.
--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
0 new messages