Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, suspended Valentina Gomez's Instagram account over the weekend. Gomez ran to for Missouri Secretary of State and finished in sixth place—but became well known for her virulently homophobic videos.
She exploded online after a May campaign ad where she told people "don't be weak and gay."
Gomez's final Instagram post on her account, @ValentinaForUSA, before being suspended featured her saying an anti-gay slur multiple times while addressing Elon Musk about her X account being demonetized. Musk is the CEO of X, and Gomez's account was remonetized on the platform after briefly being restricted.
"Elon, I speak the truth. I catch pedophiles, and I am literally helping you destroy the woke virus that took your child. And yes, once in a blue moon I called these f*****s exactly what they are. They are f*****s," Gomez said in her video posted on Instagram before she was suspended. "Elon, I don't ask for much. I simply ask that you don't throttle me or restrict me when I say the word f*****t."
Gomez posted the video on X as well.
In July, Musk was interviewed by the Daily Wire, a right-wing news outlet, about his daughter, Vivian Wilson, who is trans. In it, he said that Wilson is dead and a victim of "the woke mind virus."
Gomez's other Instagram posts included her saying the anti-gay slur numerous times, calling transgender people "these transgender things," and deeming the LGBTQ community "pedophiles" and "a terrorist organization." She also espoused other conspiracy rhetoric, like the false claim that Haitian people are cannibals who also eat pets.
GLAAD, a media-monitoring organization that advocates for fair and authentic LGBTQ representation, reported Gomez's Instagram posts to Meta multiple times over the last few months. In a statement to the Daily Dot, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said that it's "unfortunate" that Meta didn't suspend Gomez's account for months, allowing her to continue to share "multiple high-profile posts with anti-LGBTQ slurs and hate."
"Slow action, or at times no action at all, emboldens anti-LGBTQ activists to post increasingly extreme violent and dehumanizing content with the intent of inciting violence and hatred against our community," Ellis said. "Hopefully this latest action is a sign that Meta will prioritize enforcing its policies when it comes to disgusting lies, slurs, and calls for violence against our community.”"
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