Leader of Log Cabin Republicans Los Angeles Trolls Our Site After Trump Recognizes Pride Month

The Log Cabin Republicans Los Angeles are rejoicing after President Donald Trump FINALLY recognized the existence of LGBT Pride Month…via a tweet. Never you mind that it took the President three years into his office to value the millions of LGBT Americans and its allies who celebrate Pride in June.

Trump now takes the crown as the first Republican president to tweet an acknowledgement of Pride Month, and some thirsty Gays-for-Trump are beside themselves, sucking on the dry bone that was thrown their way and not missing a predictable beat in pointing a finger and going, “HA HAH!”

Trump’s tweet muttering the words Pride Month comes in the heels of the Administration’s proposed rule to amend Section 1557 of the Health Care Rights Law, a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would essentially allow healthcare providers to discriminate based on gender identity and will directly affect the very communities the law is meant to protect including women, older adults, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community.

Shortly after Trump ended his three year silence on Pride Month, Joshua Herr, the President of Log Cabin Republicans Los Angeles could not resist trolling the editor of this here publication.

An emboldened Herr sent me the following sarcastic email last night:

A second email followed shortly after:

I noticed the email was sent from the Log Cabin LA address, but it was via nationsend15.com, which seemed a little shady to me. I figured it was yet another Trump bot trolling our website.

I sent the following short reply, figuring it would land at some random Trump bot farm located at a bunker somewhere in Russia:

HOWEVER…imagine my surprise when Jashua Herr himself sent me a snarky reply via his personal email account.

“So are you upset because the bone you got today was meaningless or because you were really needing the bone in 2017 and 2018 and didn’t get it?” He replied heatedly. “Funny that you seem to care so much about how the President fails to personally affirm you and so little about the LGBT kids in dozens of countries who can still be legally stoned, castrated, thrown off roofs, or simply made to disappear.”

Then Miss Herr really came for me.

“Go back to naming Go Go Dancer of the Month – that was more thoughtful than your political hot takes.”

Ummm…according to my receipts, it’s the leader of the Log Cabin Republicans Los Angeles who is upset. He’s clearly still mad at us after we published an article penned by our talented reporter Albert Serna Jr, titled “Trump Supporters Hold Mixers at Fiesta Cantina in the Heart of WeHo,” where we simply revealed that Herr and his clan of Log Cabin Republicans were holding a mixer at the very gay Fiesta Cantina in the heart of WeHo’s Boystown.

The responses we received to the piece from those who live, work and play in WeHo were overwhelming and not to Herr’s liking. Members of the community were outraged and very vocally against this gathering at their local gay restaurant and bar. There were calls for a boycott. And words like self-hating homos were thrown around all over social media.

Herr’s knee-jerk reaction was to blame us for the response and to go into insta-victim mode and high gear drama:

“Mr. Murillo,” he wrote me shortly after the publishing of the article on May 16. “This morning WeHo Times published an article by Albert Serna Jr. titled “Trump Supporters Hold Mixers at Fiesta Cantina in the Heart of WeHo.” I am the current President of the Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles. The article is a hit piece with the apparent goals of (1) bullying Fiesta Cantina into refusing to host conservative political events at its venue and (2) bullying the Log Cabin Republicans and making our attendees feel unsafe by encouraging opponents to protest and/or disrupt the event. The article could easily be interpreted to incite assault and violence. Indeed, that is exactly what your readers’ response is. The first comment on the article, which has not been removed on your website, states:

[The comment in question was immediately removed after it was brought to our attention. It suggested the Log Cabin Republicans Los Angeles should get the brutal Walk of Shame treatment similar to that of Cersei from Game of Thrones at the Fiesta Cantina event]

“Our organization is used to this sort of hit piece,” he continued. “We deal with it all the time and will respond appropriately in due course. We will now need to employ private security to protect our attendees from your readers. However, what is even more disturbing to me is the false statement made by Mr. Serna in his article. He states ‘The Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.’ This is not true. Mr. Serna did not reach out to the Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans in any fashion. As the current President of the organization, I manage the organization’s communications. The two easiest ways to do so are by email or messaging us on Facebook. Mr. Serna did not contact us. If he had, I would have been happy to discuss with him (1) that Fiesta Cantina has never endorsed our organization (indeed, I do not even know the owners’ or employees’ personal political leanings as it has never been relevant to booking our events there, for which the organization pays), (2) the ways Log Cabin has made substantial strides for LGBT equality within the Republican Party, and (3) the history of assaults our members have faced after pieces like this have been published on social media, especially in venues like bars and Pride events where people are consuming alcohol.

Please advise as soon as possible how Weho Times will address the issues identified herein.

Thank you,

Joshua Herr, Esq.
President
Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles

===

I did exactly as he asked. I replied via email and invited him to post an official reply. I believe my response was cordial:

“Good morning Mr. Herr,” I wrote. “Thank you for your email. The comment in question was removed as soon as it was brought to my attention. It should never have posted. It’s unfortunate that it made it past our filter and moving forward, we will take extra precautions to make sure that comments like that never post on our website again.

This article was written based on fact and is not an opinion piece.

Our writer Albert Serna Jr made several attempts to call your organization via the number that’s provided on Yelp and he did not get through. He was diligent in reaching out to the bar managers and their corporate office at Fiesta Cantina as well. They answered their phone.

If you would like us to post a reply to the piece from your organization, I’m happy to update the article with your response.

Best Regards,
Paulo Murillo
Editor / Publisher”

===

It’s true. The article was not an opinion piece. The word “homophobic” was never used in the article. It never accuses Fiesta Cantina of any wrongdoing. It never suggests the Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles are not allowed to gather wherever they like. And contrary to what Herr suggested, nowhere in the actual piece does it encourage anyone to pick up a Tiki torch and incite violence against his small group of Trump followers. The piece was mainly an interesting reminder that the city of West Hollywood is not as left-leaning (or gay for that matter) as people would like to believe.

And guess what? He never responded to my email or took me up on my offer for a comment.

So I sent him a second email days after the poorly attended (or so we are told) Trump mixer at Fiesta Cantina.

“Hello Joshua,” I wrote. “Just wanted to follow up on your mixer this past Friday. Did you need to hire a security guard? Would you say it succeeded in what your organization set out to do? I’m told the event happened without incident. Is this assessment true? Is there anything you’d like to share about the event? Let us know.

Thanks,
Paulo”

And there was no response to that second email as well. I’m told a local West Hollywood blogger piggy-backed off of our Fiesta Cantina story and he too was not successful at reaching Joshua Herr or any representative at Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles for comment. So yes, ‘The Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.’ Period.

I didn’t hear from Herr until last night, but he was only emailing me to brag about Trump’s tweet.

All this to point out that Joshua Herr’s most recent sarcastic and snarky email to me suggests that victims he and his gay Republican lot they are not. We at WEHO TIMES are not responsible for the way the community reacts to their gatherings (it’s not our fault they don’t like you). If Mr. Herr wants to come at me talking about LGBT children being persecuted in foreign countries and then blink blankly and sit quietly while immigrant children are separated from their parents and locked up in cages on U.S. soil, that’s his prerogative.

If he wants to pretend like the “T” in LGBT is silent, there’s not much I can do or say to inspire some sort of change in his orange heart (and that’s just scraping the surface). I seriously would rather pound my head against a brick wall (or is it a fence?) at the Mexican border and knock myself out unconscious, rather than engage/debate a gay Republican about politics. To quote the great Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkin, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

So Yes, congratulations on your recent Trump tweet that FINALLY acknowledges your existence. I guess that now makes Trump THE mostest presidential pro-LGBT president in the entire history of all presidents combined, past and future.

You win.