Gay Dad Asks For Help Fighting Back After Media Figure Calls For Him To Be Executed For Taking His Kids To A Drag Show
It's a bracing glimpse into just how deep right-wing hatred against LGBTQ+ people goes.
PeopleImages | Canva A gay father of three is asking people for help following vicious accusations and threats by a right-wing media figure.
At first, dad and TikTok influencer Jose Rolon took far-right commentator Stew Peters' attacks on the chin. But after the blowback escalated, people online urged him to lawyer up and defend himself.
The far-right media figure called for Rolon to be executed for taking his kids to a drag show.
LGBTQ+ people have been under attack in the United States in recent years, with an unprecedented 510 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced just in 2023 alone, many of them focused on attacking trans children.
Along the way everything from the art form of drag to children's books has come under fire, often used as evidence for far-right activists' claims that all LGBTQ+ people are "groomers" and have a propensity toward sexually abusing children.
Rolon's story sits at the center of all of these disparate narratives. It began when far-right commentator Stew Peters featured some of Rolon's wildly popular TikToks — Rolon, known as @nycgaydad on the app, has more than a half-million followers.
One TikTok showed, among other things, Rolon taking his children to "RuPaul's DragCon," where Rolon inadvertently bought his children what he thought were colorful bracelets — they look very much like those slap bracelets you'll remember if you grew up in the '90s — that later turned out to be colorful adult toys.
Peters used this as evidence to smear Rolon, accuse him of pedophilia, and threaten him on his show on the platform Rumble, a sort of far-right version of YouTube.
Peters said Rolon deserved 'the gallows' and called upon the NYPD to open a sex crimes investigation against him.
In his segment, Peters accused Rolon of purposefully buying his children sex toys and talking about his sexual attraction to Travis Kelce in front of his kids. Neither the TikTok video in question nor a subsequent response in which Rolon expanded upon it shows him doing these things, and he said they did not happen.
Peters made the claims anyway, with openly bigoted and violent language rooted in right-wing extremism. "This is the type of country we live in," Peters said in his segment. "Some pervert homo has access to at least four kids round the clock all the time." (Note: Rolon only has three kids.)
He then said Rolon's TikToks pertaining to "RuPaul's DragCon" and the bracelet mishap were photographic and videographic "evidence" of "criminal sexual conduct" against his children and went on to angrily wonder why Rolon was able to commit these supposed crimes without "end[ing] up in jail, or better yet the gallows."
"The gallows" and mass public hangings of minorities, including LGBTQ+ people, are common tropes in many right-wing extremists' plans for supposedly "saving" America.
In the caption of his video, Peters also tagged the New York City Police Department, urging them to open a sex crimes investigation against Rolon.
The harassment Rolon received quickly escalated to daily death threats from Peters' followers.
In a follow-up video, Rolon shared that Peters has millions of dedicated followers and that his show regularly includes not just anti-LGBTQ+ content but openly racist and anti-Semitic calls for rhetorical and literal violence, along with conspiracy theories and Holocaust denialism.
Rolon discovered that Peters had also featured him in more than one video, including one in which he did not blur the faces of Rolon's children. More bracing still were the viewer comments Peters' videos received, which included calls to have Rolon's children taken away and to "kill," "execute," publicly hang and bludgeon him to death with steel-toed boots.
Rolon also shared screenshots showing that Peters' content is explicitly against Rumble's terms of service, which forbids "libelous," "defamatory," "racist," "anti-Semitic" or "threatening" content or content that includes incitements to violence.
Rolon was advised by a lawyer to take legal action to protect himself and his children.
Weeks later, Rolon posted yet another update, saying that he has received daily harassment and threats from Peters' followers ever since the segment first aired. He said he was advised by an attorney to take legal action in order to protect his children.
Because he and Peters reside in two different states, along with other legal intricacies, Rolon has been unable to find an attorney who will represent him on contingency. So, he has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to cover the retainer fees he needs to secure legal counsel, with all excess donations, if any, going to charity.
Rolon said he's been assured he has a strong case. "This fight isn't just about me and my family," he said. "It's about pushing back against the harmful rhetoric and the propaganda that puts all LGBTQ+ communities and families at risk."
And, like most parents, Rolon said he also wants to set an example for his children in the wake of Peters' attacks. "I want my kids… when they're adults to look back and say that we all stood against bigotry and misinformation."
Dissent and differences of opinion are inherent to American society. Most of us would agree that violence and calls for execution are not reasonable responses to disagreement, however.
But sadly, the kind of rhetoric and the threats Rolon has experienced are now everyday occurrences for LGBTQ people, many of whom say they live in fear. (I am bracing for such threats to show up in my inbox for writing this, in fact.)
"We are in an election year," as he put it in his video. "It's so vital right now to unite against the hatred and the misinformation." Here's hoping we do so, and build a society where calls for execution aren't tolerated as discourse.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.