"Incidents like this, regardless of the individuals involved, fuel harmful stereotypes and misrepresentations about the LGBTQ+ community as a whole," reads an Oct. 25 statement from Silicon Valley Pride's board of directors.
"We've already seen the resurgence of anti-LGBTQ forces," Shane Patrick Connolly, the openly gay chair of the Santa Clara County Republican Party, told San José Spotlight.
Torres' reassurances - that the investigation was baseless and he was the victim - later spelled a shocking betrayal for people who found not only inspiration, but hope, in his success as a gay Latino political figure.
Police filings made public in the subsequent weeks revealed Torres not only asked for sex with minors in 2022, but admitted to molesting an underage relative in the 1990s.
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