Republican candidates and elected officials reacted with outrage Tuesday after the Colorado GOP called to “burn all the Pride flags” in a social media post and evoked a notorious anti-gay slur in a mass email.

The state Republican Party on Monday noted the beginning of Pride Month with an email titled “God Hates Pride” that led off with a prominent graphic featuring the phrase “God Hates Flags,” a rhyming echo of a slogan used in past decades by members of the Westboro Baptist Church when they picketed funerals in opposition to LGBTQ Americans.

“The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children,” read the email’s message, signed by Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who linked to an excerpt from a Seattle pastor’s sermon attacking the agenda behind Pride Month as “demonic.”

Responding to criticism of the email on X, formerly known as Twitter, the state Republican Party posted a crude animated graphic depicting flames. It said: “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

Denver Republican Valdamar Archuleta, president of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBTQ advocacy group, and the GOP’s presumptive nominee in the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District, told Colorado Politics he decided not to accept the party’s formal endorsement after talking with numerous gay and straight Republicans who considered the party’s message “disgusting and offensive.”

“As an openly gay man in the party, I’m accepted and welcomed everywhere I go,” Archuleta said in an interview. “I think the issues brought up in the email are valid — protecting children from being sexualized is a concern, and it’s a topic we should talk about, but I think the way it was presented to the public and the way it was delivered was really bad.”

He said the message only harms Republican candidates’ prospects in a state where the party has been losing ground for over a decade.

“Anyone with a district that covers areas that are blue or purple should be upset,” Archuleta said. “Their campaigns just got harder.”

In a video posted online Tuesday morning, Archuleta said the email “went too far and was just hateful,” leading him to ask the state party to remove his name from its list of endorsed candidates.

“This email does not represent Republican voters of Colorado,” Archuleta said, adding that he still intends to “support our great GOP candidates from the top of the ticket down.”

Williams told Colorado Politics the party plans to maintain its support for Archuleta’s long-shot run.

“We make no apologies for opposing the woke Pride Month agenda as it ultimately harms children and undermines parents, but Archuleta is the presumptive nominee in an overwhelmingly Democrat-heavy district, so we will, of course, continue to highlight his candidacy,” Williams said in a text message.

Williams waved off the email’s critics.

“We used a clip of a Christian sermon to speak against Pride Month, and the backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the media and pundits, and weak Republicans who want to stick their head in the sand,” Williams said.

Williams’ counterpart across the aisle, Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, condemned the state GOP.

“For those in the back, both parties are NOT the same,” Murib posted to X, linking to a post about Williams’ email. “This type of vile hatred has come to define the CO GOP, and it’s why we’re organizing up and down the ballot to beat them at all levels.”

Among the Republicans who took issue with Williams’ message was Fox News contributor Guy Benson, who mocked the state Republicans for issuing a call to burn Pride flags.

“The Westboro Baptist Republican Party of Colorado,” Benson tweeted.

Noting in another tweet that the Colorado GOP “is a political party (barely these days), not a fundamentalist church,” Benson said the party’s Pride Month messages “are alienating political messages that turn off many rank-and-file voters within the party & actively repulse nearly everyone else.”

Weston Imer, a member of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council and a former top staffer at the Colorado GOP, said Williams was not helping the party attract voters.

“I agree with Valdamar. This email was highly offensive to me as a member of the LGB community,” Imer told Colorado Politics in a text message. He noted that the state party appears to be taking a contrary position from former President Donald Trump, who has worked to “win over the MAGA LGB base, (but) this email did nothing but push them away.”

Imer said candidates endorsed by the party now “appear anti-Pride and LGB,” adding, “Candidates have a real choice to make on if they are going to carry that torch for the state party by receiving their endorsement.”

Colorado Republicans who haven’t been endorsed by the party told Colorado Politics that Williams was hindering their ability to win elections.

“This over-the-top attack is highly inappropriate and continues to shrink our Big Tent,” said Deborah Flora, one of six candidates running in this month’s primary in the 4th Congressional District, in a text message.

“Party leadership should be focused on electing Republicans and persuading voters that our policies are the answer to what is keeping them up at night, with the open border, rising inflation, and out-of-control spending,” she said.

State Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, one of Flora’s opponents in the congressional primary, made a similar point.

“The party ‘leaders’ will do everything they can to distract from their horrid performance over the years of supporting do-nothing candidates and non-issues,” Lynch said in a text message. “We should be laser-focused on helping families struggling with record inflation and suffering from the impacts of illegal drugs in our communities.”

In the 3rd Congressional District, Republican candidate Jeff Hurd called the message “another massive failure by state GOP leadership.” He blasted Williams for alluding to the Westboro Baptist Church slogan, which Hurd characterized as “both un-Christian and wrong.”

“I strongly condemn it,” Hurd said in a text message. “The message itself is fundamentally against what we need to do as Republicans in Colorado — which is adding and multiplying voters who support us, not dividing and subtracting them.”

A spokesman for Jeff Crank, who is facing Williams in the 5th Congressional District primary, said the latest controversy underscores the state party chair’s approach to politics.

“Jeff continues to implore the Colorado Republican Party to focus on defeating Democrats,” Crank campaign advisor Nick Trainer said in a text message. “Not attacking fellow Republicans, not stoking culture wars, and not saying the most outlandish thing they can just to get attention to raise money for Dave to corruptly siphon from the Colorado Republican Party for his own broke, failing campaign.”

Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon, a Republican who announced two years ago that he was a member of the LGBTQ+ community on National Coming Out Day, told Colorado Politics that in response to the state party’s email and other messages he was encouraging Coloradans — especially Republicans — to “go out and get a huge Pride flag to show support for all of our friends and neighbors in our community.”

“Messages of hate, bigotry and government control over people’s lives are not Republican or Christian,” Laydon said. “If you want to support kids, quit telling them they’re worthless for how God created them and encouraging them to kill themselves.”

He said Republicans are concerned about public safety, reducing property taxes and addressing homelessness, not the kind of division Williams appeared to be stoking.

“Colorado Republicans have kids, grandkids, neighbors or they themselves are members of the LGBTQ community. How do messages of hate serve them in their communities?” Laydon said, noting that he wanted to “thank Dave Williams for the reminder to actually study God’s incredible love for all people, and for all Coloradans.”

“A lot of this is being wrapped in biblical verses, and I have one for Dave,” Laydon added. “Romans 8:38 — that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and God does not make mistakes.”