Instagram finally removes Republican Valentina Gomez after months of anti-gay posts
Controversial GOP candidate Valentina Gomez has become notorious for anti-LGBTQ+ posts. (Instagram: Valentinaformissouri)
Instagram has banned a former Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state, following months of anti-LGBTQ+ posts.
Valentina Gomez’s account was taken down on Friday (20 September) following reports from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including GLAAD.
Gomez, who lost a primary election to be secretary of state in August, frequently used the account to hit out at the queer community during her campaig.
In one video, while jogging through a historically LGBTQ+ neighbourhood, she told voters not to be “weak and gay”, while in separate clip she called basketball star Brittney Griner an “unpatriotic lesbian” who should be “rotting in [a] Russian prison”.
A spokesperson for Instagram’s owners told The Advocate: “I can confirm that, due to frequent and repeated violations of Meta’s hate speech policies, we have disabled this account.”
Gomez’s account had about 90,000 followers. In one of her last posts, on 17 September, she continued to use hate speech, and complained about X/Twitter demonetising her account.
A GLAAD representative said they reported the post to Instagram the following day. The platform removed her account 72 hours later. The charity noted that Gomez had posted at least 14 videos and anti-LGBTQ+ comments between August and September.
On Monday (24 September), she posted a video on X saying she had been banned from Instagram.
Gomez previously posted photos on X and Instagram showing herself using a flamethrower to burn LGBTQ+ literature, describing them on Instagram as “grooming books in our libraries,” “pornographic books” and “sex books for kids.” Her X bio reads: “Christ is king. MAGA. America First.”
More recently, she posted an Instagram reel describing cisgender female Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif as a man, using the F-slur to describe her, which was flagged for breaking Meta’s community guidelines.
GLAAD president and chief executive Sarah Kate Ellis said Instgram’s “unfortunate” slow reaction to Gomez’s hateful posts emboldened her to post more. “Hopefully, this latest action is a sign that Meta will prioritise enforcing its policies when it comes to disgusting lies, slurs and calls for violence against our community,” she added.
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