Normally, St. Louis voters can count on bombastic Republican politicians coming from far flung parts of Missouri (who’s even heard of Ash Valley ?) or at least as far as St. Charles County .
The latest GOP book burner, though, is a city resident.
Valentina Gomez, a candidate for Missouri Secretary of State, went viral yesterday after she posted a video of herself using a homemade flamethrower to incinerate two library books with queer themes outside the Springfield-Greene County library.
“When I’m Secretary of State, I will BURN all books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children. MAGA. America First,” Gomez wrote. The use of the term “grooming” has been historically used by politicians to demean the LGBTQ+ community and to hurl false stereotypes of inappropriate behavior. It pushes a narrative that queer people attempt to “recruit” children.
And while that rhetoric may be par for the course for Republicans running for statewide office, it’s certainly more unusual in Benton Park, where Gomez owns a home.