Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is on the rise across the U.S. and in Colorado, and drag shows have become a central target of the right. Conservatives have attacked and vilified drag shows and performers, saying they are part of a left-wing effort to indoctrinate children through grooming.
After Trump was blamed for the Republicans’ midterm wipeout in Colorado earlier this month, multiple leading Republicans gushed on public platforms about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who championed Florida’s notorious ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which is seen by advocates as a clear attack on LGBTQ rights.
This year, numerous races across the U.S. for Secretary of State pitted Democrats against far-right candidates who denied the results of the 2020 election. In the aftermath of this month’s election, it seems that Democrats have overwhelmingly defeated their conspiracist opponents.
On October 29, embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, currently facing multiple felony charges for tampering with election equipment, sat on a panel of Republican candidates for Secretary of State from across the U.S., all of whom have openly promoted the idea that the 2020 election was rigged. All of these candidates have ties to QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory that claims Donald Trump is fighting a secret war against a cabal of Democratic pedophiles.
Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters, who faces multiple felony charges, may have lost her race in June’s primary GOP election, but her false allegations of election fraud live on through conspiracists in Colorado and nationally. One of those currently rallying under her banner is state Rep. Mark Finchem, Arizona’s Republican candidate for Secretary of State.
It’s Pride Month once again, and Colorado’s LGBTQ community is preparing for its biggest event of the year: Denver Pridefest, a two-day celebration which has drawn upwards of 500,000 visitors in prior years. Meanwhile, the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado – the state’s most prominent organization of LGBT conservatives – are once again preparing to join the festivities.
Tim Reichert, an economist and a GOP candidate for a Colorado congressional district, is known for being a longtime opponent of reproductive rights. But in an interview on KOA’s Ross Kaminsky show last week, he doubled down on his previous statements that argue against the use of contraception.
Erik Aadland, a GOP candidate for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District in the Jefferson County area, recently announced that he had received the endorsement of rock star and outspoken conservative activist Ted Nugent.
Former state Rep. Lori Saine, who is a GOP congressional candidate and self-proclaimed conservative firebrand, seemingly took umbrage with gender-nonconforming children earlier this month, posting a meme to Facebook decrying a supposed decline in the masculinity of young boys.
A list of proposed resolutions for the Colorado GOP’s upcoming State Assembly, set to take place this Saturday, includes a statement that claims Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the necessity that American civilians be armed.
