Republican says ‘unpatriotic lesbian’ Brittney Griner should be ‘rotting in a Russian prison’ 

Valentina Gomez

Missouri Republican candidate Valentina Gomez has implied that WNBA player Brittney Griner is in some way anti-American, calling her an “unpatriotic lesbian” who should be “rotting in Russian prison”.

The reason for her lack of “patriotism”? Because Griner is planning to take part in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Missouri secretary of state candidate, who has a history of hitting out at all things “weak and gay”, took to X/Twitter on Monday (10 June) to attack Griner. 

In a 20 second clip, she said: “Brittney Griner should be rotting in a Russian prison, not going to the Olympics.” 

She captioned the post “The Olympics are about meritocracy, not DEI [diversity, equality, and inclusion]”. 

Gomez went on to say Caitlin Clark is the only reason people watch women’s basketball and she deserves to attend Paris 2024, unlike Griner, who she referred to as a “unpatriotic lesbian”. 

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Comments under the post call out Gomez for once again being “cringe” with another writing that she is “all over the place just trying to go viral”. 

https://twitter.com/Kherty_Nati/status/1800150564732379165

Even some of her supporters have disagreed with the post. 

Griner was held for 10 months after being arrested in February 2022, when Russian authorities found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She was eventually sentenced to nine years on drug charges and released in December 2022 in a prisoner swap with arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Following her release Griner has spoke out about facing homophobia while in detention, and being kept in a “mouldy” prison which resulted in her “getting sick”.

Caitlin Clark’s omission from USA Women’s Basketball roster for Paris 2024 has been met with shock, leading the far-right to hit out at nine-time All Star Griner who will be attending the Games for the third time. Griner has said she “can’t wait to go” and represent her country. 

Gomez has hit out at the LGBTQ+ community before

In May, Gomez urged Americans not to be “weak and gay” in a viral campaign video that was called out as “beyond cringe”.

A couple of months before she claimed she was being “censored” after a video of her burning LGBTQ+ books with a flamethrower was removed from Instagram. 

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