Gay Trump supporter accuses Black people of ‘colonizing’ Pride Month
Conservative journalist Chadwick Moore was branded racist and ignorant for saying Juneteenth "isn't a thing"
A gay Trump supporter and conservative media figure has been slammed on social media for accusing Black people of trying to “colonize” Pride Month.
Chadwick Moore, a right-wing journalist who has been called Fox News’ host Tucker Carlson’s “go-to gay on the supposed hysterics of the gay left,” also criticized Juneteenth, claiming it “isn’t a thing.”
“I’m sorry, blacks, but you already have a month,” he wrote last week. “Juneteenth isn’t a thing. Don’t colonize our month as well. thanks. Signed, the gays.”
I’m sorry, blacks, but you already have a month. Juneteenth isn’t a thing. Don’t colonize our month as well. thanks. Signed, the gays.
— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) June 20, 2020
Moore received widespread backlash over the tweet, which commenters branded racist, noting that Juneteenth predates the 1969 Stonewall Riots by more than a century, and telling Moore he didn’t speak for gay people or the wider LGBTQ community.
Juneteenth, commemorated each year on June 19, celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, and derives from an order in Texas on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in the state were free.
Moore was called “deeply ignorant,” “sad and pathetic,” and an “intentionally inflammatory racist” in replies to his tweet.
The racism here is deeply ignorant and weirdly performative. It’s very look at me! He decides that Juneteenth is not a thing because he doesn’t know about it. So whitecentric. Here’s an example of hate speech that tries to be cutesy. https://t.co/k9sULsYHNd
— Touré (@Toure) June 21, 2020
I'm sorry, Chadwick, you are an intentionally inflammatory racist, and an embarrassment to LGBTQ+ folks who know that these struggles aren't disparate, but deeply connected & shared. Please make like a confederate statue & get off your pedestal & go away.
Signed,
Queer People https://t.co/LNJKq2Hzi6— Sophie Ellman-Golan (@EgSophie) June 20, 2020
juneteenth happened 104 years before the stonewall riot
— ali lawrence 🌹 (@a_lawrence42) June 20, 2020
1. dont call us blacks
2. stop generalizing “the gays” as we all have different beliefs
3. dont compare black people to colonizers
4. our month is february, the shortest month of the year
5. we are still fighting for justice
6. dont call us blacks— ✿ 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒⁷ ʙʟᴍ 💕 (@swordsafety) June 20, 2020
I’m sorry, Chadwick, but you don’t represent us. Your bullshit isn’t a thing. Stop falling for the trap to pit oppressed communities against each other. It’s sad & pathetic. Also, black lbgtq+ folks are the reason we even have a fucking month in the first place. Signed, the gays. https://t.co/Pgku6nIcpE
— Benj Pasek (@benjpasek) June 20, 2020
Filing a class action suit on behalf of all the gays whose signatures you forged on this mess
— Chris Stedman (@ChrisDStedman) June 20, 2020
Who are you? Regardless, this tweet is trash and obviously reflects the trash that tweeted it. You don’t speak for the gay community! We don’t claim you!
— Trinity The Tuck (@TrinityTheTuck) June 20, 2020
The backlash over Moore’s tweet was significant enough to see his name become a trending topic on Twitter.
He responded by adding a reply to his original tweet, saying it “seems to have touched a nerve with the left… BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL THINKING IT.”
He later tweeted, “I stand by everything. Sit and spin, liberals.”
Related: Gay Trump supporter removed from plane for refusing to wear mask
Moore also appeared to mock the Black Lives Matter movement in another tweet, and again accused protests over systemic racism and police brutality of having “hijacked” Pride month.
“You may have forgotten that this is Pride month,” he wrote. “And that’s because another identity group hijacked the season–even though they already have a month. I’d like to be the first to say, #GayLivesMatter.”
Moore’s tweets are part of a long-established pattern of inflammatory and racist statements, including claiming in the days before his tweet that he has “actually never met a legit racist white person.”
Related: Gay Trump supporters complain about Supreme Court giving them more rights
He characterizes himself as a “former liberal,” and came to prominence after writing a profile of racist alt right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos for Out Magazine in 2016. The article and its author were pilloried for giving Yiannopoulos a platform and for being too sympathetic to his far right views.
The backlash led Moore to ultimately “come out” as a conservative in a New York Post article in 2017.
Moore’s tweets about Pride month — and in particular comments for Pride parades to go ahead, in light of Black Lives Matter protests — stand in contrast to an article he wrote for Spectator USA last year deriding Pride events.
He criticized World Pride adverts for showing “mostly obese, sassy black lesbians” instead of white gay men, and called Pride the “Olympics for meth, alcoholism, public fornication, corporate pandering, and hairy asses shoved in the faces of children.”
In 2018, Moore told Tucker Carlson that he felt “very bad” for Vice President Mike Pence after Pence was criticized for allegedly supporting conversion therapy, and said criticism of Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record was “depraved fantasy.”
“I feel very bad for Mike Pence,” Moore said. “He handles these attacks with such grace and such decorum. I really don’t think there’s anything homophobic about Mike Pence.”
Related: Mike Pence attended an anti-gay sermon. The White House livestreamed it.
And last year, Moore joined a group of gay Republicans to urge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “never bring the Equality Act up for a vote.”
The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system.
It was passed by the House of Representatives last year, but has stalled in the Senate after resistance from Republicans.
Read more:
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NBJC’s David J. Johns on race, justice, and the importance of replacing Trump
Gay Trump supporters complain about Supreme Court giving them more rights
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