Michael DiManna, the only Republican candidate running in Denver’s House District 2, on Wednesday rejected the Colorado GOP’s endorsement in response to what he called the party’s “blatant attack” on the LGBTQ community in a mass email marking the beginning of Pride Month titled “God Hates Pride.”

“This condemnation of the entire Gay Community is not representative of my view,” DiManna said in a written statement.

He added that he is calling on other endorsed candidates to also reject the state Republican Party’s endorsement on the same grounds.

DiManna, a practicing attorney since 1972 and founder of Denver’s first minority-owned law firm, noted that while he isn’t on board with many of the policies promoted by “progressive gay rights activists,” he disagreed strongly with the party’s message.

“I cannot endorse the condemnation of an entire community of Colorado citizens over who they love, and choose to be with,” DiManna said.

DiManna is the second Denver Republican this week to tell the state GOP he doesn’t want its endorsement, following a similar move on Wednesday by Valdamar Archuleta, the candidate challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the 1st Congressional District.

Archuleta, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado, a conservative LGBTQ-advocacy group, called the party’s attacks on Pride Month and the gay community “just hateful” and ‘disgusting.”

Earlier this week, state GOP Chairman Dave Williams signed an email distributed to the state party’s mailing list that said the advent of Pride Month meant “the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children.” The email also referred to LGBTQ people as “creeps,” “degenerates,” “godless” and “reprobates.”

The email featured a prominent graphic with the headline “God hates flags,” echoing an infamous anti-gay slur used by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, including when they picketed funerals of prominent LGBTQ people and U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In response to criticism, the Colorado GOP’s official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted a crude animated graphic of flames with the message, ““Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

DiManna, the presumptive Republican nominee in the heavily Democratic legislative seat, said he is unwilling to accept the part’s formal endorsement after seeing the email.

“I believe that this blatant attack on law-abiding citizens for simply identifying as LGB is beyond the pale, and it should be clear that this does not represent the position of every Republican in Colorado, the national party, or our party’s nominee for President, President Donald J. Trump,” DiMann said.

DiManna was elected by fellow Republicans earlier this year as a delegate for Trump to this summer’s Republican National Convention. He was an alternate delegate to the 2016 RNC.

“The Republican Party is a big tent,” he added, “and I, for one, will not be one to close its doors to any citizen who wants to come into our party.”

State Rep. Steven Woodrow, the Democratic incumbent DiManna will face in November, told Colorado Politics that his Republican opponent’s stance was “certainly a nice departure from the norm.”

“It’s a good first step,” Woodrow said. “There’s a lot of anti-LGBTQ sentiment that gets expressed in the Republican caucus. It’d be nice to have him commit to being an outspoken voice against his colleagues when that rears its head down at the Capitol.”

DiManna told Colorado Politics he agrees with the Republican platform, including that a marriage is between a man and a woman, but said he plans to speak up when members of his own party cross a line.

“There are certain things that I will continue to speak out against,” DiManna said, “but one of them is not excluding an entire community of Colorado citizens.”

Added DiManna: “When you put out a statement that says God hates the gay flag — that’s just inappropriate, and that’s wrong.”

Williams dismissed DiManna’s and Archuleta’s reactions to the email as grandstanding in a text message to Colorado Politics.

“They are the presumptive nominees, so the only way for them to reject our party label is to withdraw from the race, but they won’t, because they want to have their cake and eat it too,” Williams said.