Apparently, this anti-gay lawmaker just learned about Pride & he’s not handling it well

There’s no shortage of places to put the blame for climate change: deforestation, unregulated industry, overconsumption, and the list goes on. But Minnesota state senator Eric Lucero has a new bright idea: maybe the whole thing is gay people’s fault!

Lucero took to Twitter on Monday to make his theory known. He starts off strong, writing “GLOBAL WARMING” in all caps. “Our Creator hates PRIDE and each of us as the creation will be held to account for our choices, eventually,” Lucero continues. “The 7-color natural rainbow is a reminder of His promise to never again enact worldwide judgment by WATER. The next worldwide judgment will be by FIRE.”

Maybe we could give Lucero the benefit of the doubt that he was just referring to the biblical sin of pride in his tweet, and not LGBTQ+ Pride specifically—if it didn’t happen to come just the day after the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ Pride March, his state’s largest Pride parade, and reference the rainbow so heavily.

So, yeah. To break it down, Lucero is effectively saying that climate change is the act of a vengeful god who hates “prideful” people, and those people are going to burn. This is pretty average wackjob stuff for Twitter, but from an elected official like Lucero, it’s pretty disconcerting.

Lucero’s claim about climate change is especially hypocritical given a video he posted earlier this year on Earth Day, or, as he calls it, “the Left’s religious holiday.”

“Democrats have been working hard to increase taxes, to increase regulation, under the false idea of human-caused global climate change and climate crisis,” Lucero says in the video. 

So, are humans—LGBTQ+ humans, specifically—responsible for climate change, or is that a “false idea?” We’re getting mixed signals, Eric. 

Of course, Lucero is also the type of guy to picture himself as a literal angel fighting literal demons, so maybe it’s best not to take anything he says too seriously. (Yes, this is a real tweet from a real elected official.)

Lucero’s anti-Pride tweet caught the attention of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party.

“Our party believes in treating LGBTQ Minnesotans with dignity and respect. Republicans are threatening LGBTQ Minnesotans with judgment by fire,” the DFL Party tweeted. “Love vs. hate. Compassion vs. cruelty. Acceptance vs. bigotry. The choice between our two parties could not be more clear.”

And of course, the average Twitter user had a thing or two to say as well.

So you’re committed to passing strong legislation fighting climate change, right? That’s what I’m getting from this.

— Sophie Brauer (@SophieBrauer2) June 26, 2023