Pride flag killing suspect appears to have a long history of anti-LGBTQ social posts

Many of the account’s earlier tweets include references to Christianity and anti-LGBTQ sentiments. In June 2018, the account rebuked a Mastercard advertisement that featured model Elliott Sailors talking about LGBTQ inclusion.

“LGBT people need to stop asking the world for acceptance, instead they should start accepting Jesus Christ in their hearts and turn away from their false sexual identity that the devil deceived them to be!” the account tweeted,” calling LGBTQ inclusion “a cancer.”

In August 2021, the account compared the user’s views on LGBTQ rights with his views on abortion, saying, “Abortion is a path to death for the unborn. LGBTQ is a path to death for the once who are already been born.”

In some of the account’s more recent posts — and as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has become somewhat mainstream among far-right elected officials and media pundits — the anti-LGBTQ comments appeared to become more graphic and violent.

On June 13, during Pride Month, the account posted a photo of a burning Pride flag with the text: “What to do with the LGBTQP flag?” The “P” added to the LGBTQ initialism appears to refer to “pedophile,” a trope that has resurfaced in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric over the last two years.

Three days later, the account retweeted and condemned an image of a scissor cutting through the center of the “LGBTIQA+” initialism, which appears to advocate for gay, lesbian and bisexual people dissociating from the transgender and gender-nonconforming communities.

“This tactic is not going to solve anything. Where you are cutting off the legs of the octopus and can grow back another one,” the account wrote. “KILL THE OCTOPUS!! Not just its legs!!!”

More recently, the account retweeted several posts with anti-LGBTQ sentiments from right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh, who has over 2.4 million followers on X, and far-right cable news channel One America News Network, also known as OAN.