Supporters of the anti-LGBTQ+ Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), are doubling down on anti-LGBTQ+ hate in support of her campaign by releasing a new, more extreme ad attacking her opponent for supporting trans rights.

Earle-Sears was under fire last week for saying at a debate that she doesn’t believe that firing people just for being gay is a form of discrimination. This comes after her long opposition to marriage equality, as well as a resurfaced statement from her prior congressional campaign that being gay is an “immoral lifestyle choice.”

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“She’d allow boys to play girls’ sports and shower in girls’ locker rooms… naked,” the voiceover in the ad, paid for by the conservative Restoration of America PAC, says, referring to the Democratic candidate in the race, Abigail Spanberger. The ad shows a picture of an underage boy without clothes on.

The claim is based on Spanberger’s support for the Equality Act, which she voted for when she was in Congress. The Equality Act would expand federal civil rights protections to include LGBTQ+ people, but it did not address the issue of trans student-athletes. Moreover, the issue Earle-Sears is referring to is not supporting “boys” in girls’ sports, but allowing trans girls to participate in sports as their gender.

The ad then says Spanberger is “all in on horrifying gender mutilation and irreversible sterilization of children,” which is also not true. Gender affirming genital surgery is not performed on minors, and more common forms of gender-affirming care for young people, like puberty blockers, are reversible. Moreover, the Democrats’ position on gender-affirming care isn’t that everyone should be subjected to it but that it should remain a choice between patients, their families, and their doctors.

“Spanberger refuses to answer questions about this because she knows how evil it is,” the voiceover says mysteriously, even though Spanberger brought up LGBTQ+ rights on her own in last week’s debate.

Earle-Sears put LGBTQ+ front and center in the campaign earlier this year when she ran an ad accusing Spanberger of allowing “men in girls’ sports.” The ad ended with a callback to last year’s presidential campaign: “Spanberger is for they/them, not for us.”

A second attack ad released by the Earle-Sears campaign earlier this year claimed that Spanberger “wants boys to play sports and share locker rooms with little girls” and that she will “let children change genders without telling their parents.”

But Spanberger hit back on the issue of LGBTQ+ rights with an ad that criticizes Earle-Sears for her opposition to marriage equality and employment protections. The ad plays a part of their debate from last week.

“My opponent has previously said that she does not think that gay couples should be allowed to marry,” Spanberger says in the clip played in the ad.

“That’s not discrimination!” Earle-Sears interjects.

“My opponent has also previously said that she thinks it’s OK for someone to be fired from their job for being gay,” Spanberger says in the ad. “That is discrimination.”

“That’s not discrimination!” Earle-Sears cries out.

Restoration of America PAC is a conservative Christian advocacy group that claims to be fighting “elite, Marxist neo-liberals” and “Communist China.” Last year, the PAC focused on opposing out lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) reelection campaign, spending $3 million on ads in Wisconsin denouncing immigration. The PAC also ran an ad criticizing Kamala Harris on immigration.

It has received over $8 million so far this year, according to FEC filings.

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