Virginia governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has received backlash this week for having a staffer who identifies as being a part of the LGBTQ community. The Daily Beast reported on Friday that right-wingers took to social media to attack his press assistant, Joshua Marin-Mora for allegedly supporting things that go against the Republican agenda.
Marin-Mora, who has been working for Youngkin since June, recently graduated from Georgetown University in May. As a student, he served in student government and the Georgetown Latinx Leadership Forum which advocates for Latino students on campus. All in all, it seems like he has a strong interest in politics and a unique perspective as a Republican LGBTQ male. This must be a good hire on Youngkin’s part, right? Wrong.
According to Pedro L. Gonzalez, a writer for conservative think tank Claremont Institute, it’s a crime against the GOP to have pronouns in your bio, advocate for the Latino community, and wear LGBTQ Pride clothing.
“So, Youngkin chose a guy with pronouns in his bio to do his comms who also served on the Georgetown Latinx Leadership Forum and supports virtually everything Youngkin’s voters voted against,” Gonzalez argued on Twitter.
Youngkin got elected on culture war issues about race and sex
So, Youngkin chose a guy with pronouns in his bio to do his comms who also served on the Georgetown Latinx Leadership Forum and supports virtually everything Youngkin's voters voted against
This is peak GOP pic.twitter.com/WWziJNO4g3
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) November 19, 2021
Gonzalez’s lengthy thread also included photos of Marin-Mora wearing a skirt, a Pride shirt, and a brightly-colored serape graduation stole that he mistakenly thought was a Pride symbol. According to the Daily Beast report, it was later elevated by far-right personalities including Pizzagate figure Jack Prosobiec.
Guy Benson, a Fox News contributer and former Georgetown University Politics Fellow, came to the staffer’s defense. “He holds some heterodox political views, but is proudly center-right,” Benson said on Twitter. “And he worked his ass off to help Youngkin beat McAuliffe, especially among Hispanics.”
Joshua was one of my students when I taught at GU last semester. He’s Latino & LGBTQ. He holds some heterodox political views (as do most of us) but is proudly center-right. And he worked his ass off to help Youngkin beat McAuliffe, especially among Hispanics. Good hire by Glenn. https://t.co/VJ50qiVVsK
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 19, 2021
Matt Wolking, the communications director for the Youngkin campaign, also defended Marin-Mora in a Tweet last Friday, calling haters “ignorant and foolish” for attacking the staffer who “worked hard to elect a conservative as Virginia’s next governor.”
.@joshua_marinm is a valued member of our campaign’s comms team and has been for months.
He worked hard to elect a conservative as Virginia’s next governor. Attacking him for that is ignorant and foolish.
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) November 19, 2021
Washingtonian reached out to Marin-Mora and Youngkin’s press team for comment, but we have not heard back.
Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.
