Valentina Gomez, a twice-failed anti-LGBTQ+ Texas GOP candidate, has been banned from entering the U.K. following incendiary comments about Muslims she made during her last appearance in the country.

Gomez, who has run two unsuccessful campaigns for office in two different U.S. states in recent years, had received permission through the U.K.’s electronic travel authorization to enter the country, where she was scheduled to speak at British far-right activist and Trump ally Tommy Robinson’s May 16 Unite the Kingdom rally in London, the Guardian reports. But according to the outlet, outcry over her comments at the first Unite the Kingdom rally last September led Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to withdraw the authorization.

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26-year-old Gomez has built her political brand on incendiary, unhinged, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Muslim rhetoric. During her 2024 campaign for Missouri Secretary of State, she posted an ad in which she torched LGBTQ+ books; regularly described LGBTQ+ people as “pedophiles” and “fa***ts”; and called then-Vice President Kamala Harris “an Indian hoe.” While campaigning to unseat Rep. John Carter (R-TX) last year, she described “LGBTQ” as “a terrorist organization” and Islam as a “religion of rape, incest, and pedophilia.” She also posted videos of herself burning a copy of the Quran and shooting a mannequin representing an immigrant in the head.

At September’s Unite the Kingdom rally, Gomez reportedly told a crowd of more than 100,000 people that “rapist Muslims” were “taking over” the U.K.

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After she posted that she had been approved to travel to May’s rally, critics blasted the U.K. Home Office for not applying the same standard to Gomez that it used to ban Kanye West from entering the country earlier this month. West’s travel authorization was withdrawn over his frequent antisemitic, pro-Nazi comments, which he has blamed on his being bipolar.

Over the weekend, Shaista Gohir, a member of the U.K.’s House of Lords and leader of Muslim Women’s Network U.K., wrote in on X that the Home Office “should show consistent standards and deny UK entry to Valentina Gomez.” Similarly, the Muslim Council of Britain said that Gomez’s travel authorization “highlights a clear double standard in how freedom of speech is applied and can potentially lead to less safety and security on the streets of Britain.”

“Others have been denied entry to the UK for rhetoric directed at different faith groups,” the group said. “This inconsistency raises serious concerns about whose speech is deemed unacceptable and who is permitted.”

Following the backlash, Mahmood reportedly withdrew Gomez’s travel authorization, citing the fact that her presence in the U.K. “would not be conducive to the public good.” A source told the Guardian that while the Home Secretary’s office recognizes “the democratic right that people must be free to peacefully express their views, this does not include promoting hatred and extremist views.”

On Monday, Gomez posted a video in which she said she had been “banned from England by a dirty Pakistani Muslim because I’m not coming to rape or kill little girls.” She went on to claim that she still plans on traveling to the U.K. for the May 16 rally. “I’m gonna do exactly what the rapist, pedophile Muslims do. I’m gonna hop on a boat,” she said. “And if they dare to arrest me, I guarantee you that the White House will get involved, because I’m not just coming with Jesus Christ. I’m coming with current and former soldiers of the United States military.”

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