In response to nothing, gay Rep. George Santos (R-NY) went on an anti-LGBTQ+ rant on Twitter about what he called the “Radical Rainbow Mafia.”
“I will always stand up to the Radical rainbow mafia!” he wrote. “I believe in the freedom to live and let live but will never bow to the indoctrination of the Rainbow Mafia. My flag is the AMERICAN FLAG.”
Despite being the first out gay Republican elected to Congress, Santos has made it a point of pride to attack the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Not only has he cosponsored anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, he has mocked trans people online, complained that teachers are “indoctrinating” children into being tolerant of LGBTQ+ people, and said that LGBTQ+ families are so bad that they “create troubled individuals.”
On Twitter, LGBTQ+ people and progressives responded to Santos’s attack on the people who fought for his right to get married and serve openly in Congress.