Hateful Protest

By Rhuaridh Marr

A MAN IN COLORADO is reportedly protesting Gov. Jared Polis’ stay-at-home order with a sign spray-painted on his truck reading, “OPEN OUR GYMS FAGGOT.” Polis made history in 2018 when he became America’s first openly gay elected governor.

Polis closed gyms in the state on March 19 — alongside bars, restaurants, and theaters — to try and limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. He eventually issued a statewide stayat-home order on March 25, which was later downgraded to a safer-at-home order last month.

Images of the truck were shared by the website Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists, which said that the truck belongs to 61-year-old Loveland, Colo., resident Michael Drewer, LGBTQ Nation reports.

“Michael Drewer’s car was seen on Garfield and Orchards in Loveland with a homophobic slur directed at Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Sunday, 5/17/2020, the same day as Reopen Colorado protest at the state capitol,” Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists wrote in a post accompanying images of the truck.

The website also shared images reportedly of Drewer wearing a confederate flag t-shirt, saying he is “no stranger to bigotry” and “apparently doesn’t see any irony in supporting both sides of a war against the United States on the basis of slavery.”

Drewer’s Facebook profile also showed that he had liked a number of Trump-supportive Facebook pages.

“We don’t support the state, but we do support science and medicine,” Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists wrote. “Stay inside (if you can), wear a mask, be gay, and do crimes.”

Colorado has almost 23,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has registered almost 1,300 deaths. Despite Gov. Polis revising his stay-at-home order to a safer-at-home order to prepare for reopening the economy, several counties extended their own lockdown orders into May.

Last month, a Republican lawmaker in the state refused to apologize after comparing Polis’ stay-at-home order to Nazi Germany.

Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville (R-Castle), speaking on a conservative radio program, accused Polis of having a “Gestapo-like mentality” with regards to the order.

Polis slammed the statement during a press conference, saying he was “offended” and noting that not only is he Jewish, but he lost family members during the Holocaust, the Denver Post reported.

“As a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I’m offended by any comparison to Nazism,” Polis said. “We act to save lives — the exact opposite of the slaughter of 6 million Jews and many gypsies and Catholics and gays and lesbians and Russians and so many others.”

Speaking to the Post after Polis made his comments, Neville refused to apologize, instead saying, “I should have said authoritarian, not Gestapo. And I think authoritarian is still accurate.”