In a series of Facebook posts over the past month, Valdamar Archuleta, executive director of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans, blames people his organization purports to represent for “increasing violence towards the LGBT community.”
Just a week after the Club Q shooting in which five Coloradans were murdered and another 18 injured, Archuleta reinforced the dangerous conspiracy theory that LGBT people are pedophiles.
“If you’re really that upset about being called a #groomer maybe you should step back and reevaluate your activity around children,” wrote Archuleta. “At the very least for appearances sake.”
The anti-LGBT “groomer” attacks re-appeared in force last year, reinvigorated by conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former member of FAIR’s Board of Advisors, who first gained notoriety for twisting critical race theory into a right-wing talking point, and then turned to claiming any reference to LGBT identity is “grooming.” His frame has been echoed by Fox News and now is dominating Elon Musk’s Twitter, particularly since he slashed the platform’s content moderators.
Archuleta also liked multiple anti-trans comments made in response to his post blaming LGBT activists for the increase in violence against their own community. One wrote simply “LGB drop the T!”
According to the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado website, the group’s mission is “is to work on the state and local level, both within & alongside, the Colorado Republican Party to advocate for the equal rights of all Americans, LGBT community included.”
Reached for comment, Archuleta offered the following statement:
“I’m very aware of the history of gay men unjustly being linked to pedophiles as a group,” said Archuleta. “And yes, I know this has been used to justify hatred towards the LGBT community. This is exactly why I feel this new fad of including children in LGBT activities with sexual themes is so dangerous. Not only is the sexualizing of children damaging to kids, it gives fuel to the rumors linking gay men to pedophilia. I also have never said that ‘LGBT people are pedophiles’ nor do I believe that.
For decades the gay rights movement, which included the LGBT community as a whole, was about gaining the freedom to be who we are. Our message was one of assimilation. We just wanted the right to live our lives within the community and to be left alone. Now, LGBT activists have turned that message into one of reconstruction. Rather than asking society to allow us to join them, they’re asking society to be rebuilt around them forcing language and ideology on people. This is not a popular message in a country that advocates freedom and individuality. It comes across with sentiments of division, anger, and negativity along with political undertones. This makes people uncomfortable. This discomfort can grow to become more negative feelings. In the long run this will make things worse for the LGBT community.
As far as comments I have ‘liked,’ I have nothing to say about that. I like comments for a variety of reasons and not always because I agree with the message or the individual making the statement.”
Archuleta’s position stands in contrast to that of the leader of his national organization. In April, Log Cabin Republicans president Charles Moran told NBC that the term “groomer” is “subtle subterfuge that gays are pedophiles.”
“The left goes, ‘You’re a bigot,’ and the right goes, ‘You’re a groomer,’” Moran said. “I will take flak from people that this is reinforcing a trope that is not beneficial for anybody who’s gay in public life. Pedophiles exist at a much higher proportion in the straight community than the gay community, but it is always a shtick our critics will go back to.”
