José Rolón, a gay father and popular social media influencer known as @nycgaydad, has filed a defamation lawsuit against right-wing commentator Stew Peters, who falsely accused him of “criminal sexual conduct” involving his three young children.
Rolón, who has more than 150,000 followers on Instagram and over 500,000 on TikTok, says he was barraged with death threats and vile messages after Peters attacked him online for sharing videos about his life as a single gay dad.
As reported by The Advocate, Rolón’s legal team filed a five-count lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court accusing Peters of defamation and bias-related intimidation under New York’s Civil Rights Law, citing multiple false statements made against him.
The lawsuit claims Peters fuels engagement among his 1.6 million followers by portraying Christian Americans as being “under attack by Jews, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups,” often targeting individuals who represent those communities, such as small-town mayors who allow Pride parades.
Rolón is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, payment of his legal fees, and for Peters to forfeit any financial gains tied to his alleged harassment campaign.
The alleged harassment began after Peters tagged both Rolón and the New York Police Department in an Instagram video last year, urging police to investigate the influencer. In the clip, Peters called Rolón a “creep” and a “pervert homo,” and even demanded his public execution over baseless claims of “criminal sexual conduct” involving his children.
The “sexual conduct” to which Peters appeared to be referring was a post in which Rolón took his children to RuPaul’s Drag Con and purchased what he mistakenly thought were rainbow-colored bracelets, and later realized were cock rings. Rolón shared his embarrassment online. Peters seized on the post, expressing outrage not only over his children’s exposure to drag, but also over a playful family video referencing rainbows and disco balls at their home.
“Some pervert homo has access to at least four kids around the clock,” Peters said, misstating the number of Rolón’s children. “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.”
After Peters’ post, Rolón received a flood of threats and hostile comments accusing him of “grooming” his children simply for exposing them to LGBTQ content.
At the time, Rolón toldThe Advocate he was forced to take extra security measures for his family, including changing his work schedule so that only he could pick up his children from school. He said the threat felt especially serious because Peters, in a longer video posted to Rumble, failed to blur his children’s faces, making them identifiable — though shorter Instagram clips did obscure them.
Rather than retreat, Rolón posted his own video calling out Peters’ accusations and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, labeling his claims as “misinformation” — even as the same clips continued to fuel violent threats against him.
“I had two choices on how to handle @stewpeters,” Rolón wrote at the time. “Ignore it or expose him for what he is, to show the public that real people out there exist.”
Instagram later removed Peters’ video.
Rolón’s attorneys had earlier sent Peters a cease-and-desist letter demanding the removal of all videos mentioning Rolón or his children — a request Peters honored. Now, Rolón appears determined to secure financial compensation for the harm he and his family endured.
Carrie Goldberg, an attorney for Rolón, told The Advocate that “the sort of harassment and incitement my client and his young family suffered may be celebrated online, but a Brooklyn jury will look at it very, very differently.”
Goldberg warned that some viewers of Peters’ videos could be radicalized or act on their own to harm Rolón if they believe the false accusations that he is abusing his children.
“There’s a responsibility that comes with having as far a reach as Peters has,” she said. “Our country has fought hard for First Amendment protections. But free speech never extends to inciting people to harass private citizens or make hoax police reports against them. It just takes one rogue believer to upend a life.”
California Democrat says House Oversight Chair James Comer made a "homophobic" remark after Democrats challenged his handling of the Epstein investigation.
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, fired back at Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) after Comer dismissed him as a "real big drama queen."
Comer's jab came after Democrats released a sexually suggestive letter allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The letter, featuring a drawing of a curvaceous woman used as the backdrop for birthday wishes, was allegedly signed by Donald Trump and included in a 2003 album celebrating Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump had been friendly with Epstein during the 1980s and 1990s.
Charlie Sheen is opening up about past sexual encounters with men in two upcoming projects -- his memoir The Book of Sheen, out September 9, and the Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen, premiering September 10. The Two and a Half Men star gets candid in both about his history of drug use, relationships, and sexual dalliances.
"I flipped the menu over," Sheen says in both the documentary and the book, according to PEOPLE. The actor has previously spoken about his sexual encounters with women during the height of his addiction struggles.
The city of Milwaukee has installed rainbow crosswalks at the intersection of 2nd Street and National Avenue in the city’s traditionally LGBTQ neighborhood of Walker’s Point. It's a move that stands in direct contrast to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s push to eliminate all street art from public roads.
The crosswalks, paired with rainbow-colored koi fish painted on nearby sidewalks by the popular LGBTQ venue LaCage NiteClub at 801 S. 2nd St., were designed by Jeremy Novy, a California-based street artist with deep Milwaukee ties.
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