A well-known social media personality is clapping back after a conservative commentator accused him of pedophilia simply because he is a gay dad.
Widower José Rolón is a single gay father of three. Using the handle @nycgaydad across social media, he shares delightful and hilarious videos he makes with his kids. He has over 512 thousand followers on TikTok and 150 thousand followers on Instagram.
Rolón recently posted a video of right-wing commentator Stew Peters calling him a “creep” and accusing him of pedophilia, exploiting his children, and giving them sex toys. Rolón pointed out that Peters tagged the NYPD in his original video, urging them to open up a sex crimes investigation against him.
Peters was outraged that “this homosexual” takes his children to drag shows and allows them to see the “cross-dressing wigs” in his closet. Peters also aired a clip from one of Rolón’s videos, horrified that the kids joked that of course they have rainbows and disco balls all over their house, since they have a gay dad.
Peters also declared that Rolón should be executed: “Some pervert homo has access to at least four kids around the clock all the time. He can take them to drag conventions and then post the evidence, post pictures and videos of criminal sexual conduct… and somehow not end up in jail, or better yet, the gallows.”
“That, to me, is the line that was [most] shocking,” Rolón toldAdvocate. “This man is actually calling for my hanging in public.”
The sex toy allegations likely referred to a gaffe Rolón made about which he was extremely open – when he bought his kids bracelets at RuPaul’s Drag Con only to learn they were made to go around a different part of the body. Rolón made a video about the incident, saying he was “mortified” that they had been there all day with the kids waving their bracelets in the air.
He said he spoke with the vendor, who tried to warn him but didn’t know how, especially because the kids love them so much.
But Rolón didn’t take all this lying down. He spoke to his followers about how “this D list version of Tucker Carlson decided for his own benefit and likes that he would create a false narrative. Clearly as most of you know he can’t even count,” referring to the fact that Peters said Rolón had four kids when he only has three.
“Maybe you wanna be my new kid, and I can show you a few lessons,” he said, addressing Peters directly.
“I could be your daddy,” he added with a smirk.
Rolón said he doesn’t need to defend himself to this man but wanted him to know, “It’s people like you that are destroying this country” and should be reported to the police.
He joked that he was considering sending his gay mafia to deal with Peters, whispering, “There is a gay mafia, and they’re nasty.”
“I think you’re scared of losing all the privilege that you think you have, but coming after me and my children and my family, it’s not it. It’s not going to progress your cause.”
In the caption of his post, Rolón wrote, “I had two choices on how to handle [Peters]. Ignore it or expose him for what he is to show the public that real people out there exist.”
The Anti-Defamation League describes Peters as “an antisemitic conspiracy theorist” who “regularly promotes anti-LGBTQ+ and white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media” and “has engaged in Holocaust denial.”
Rolón told Advocate it was challenging to decide if he should say anything.
“In our community, we’re often faced with this question of do we ignore it so that we don’t give this person a voice, or make it so that people are aware of the kind of people that are out there spreading misinformation about our community, especially in an election year. I made the decision to talk about it because I think it’s important.”
He added that Peters’s video has led to threats against his family that have required him to change his schedule so he can pick up his kids from school every day rather than let them leave on their own.
“It’s forcing us to be a little bit more vigilant and just take extra precaution,” he said. “These are the things that our community is constantly having to deal with.”
