Arkansas Dem Hallie Shoffner Led Pro-Trans Parade In Peru, Derailing Moderate ‘Farmer’ Image

As she prepared to launch a statewide campaign as a Democrat in deep red Arkansas, the woman hoping to unseat Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton appears to have scrubbed from the internet her work for a nonprofit dedicated to helping people “make decisions about their sexuality” in Peru, where she literally led a pro-transgender parade through the streets of the capital city.

“The only thing Hallie ever wanted to do was farm,” Democrat Hallie Shoffner’s campaign website states. “But if she can’t farm, she’s going to fight.”

The tunnel-vision desire to farm somehow brought her to work in South America at Peru’s Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights, “a feminist non-governmental organization that, through political advocacy, knowledge generation and alliances, helps people to make decisions about their sexuality and reproduction with autonomy, dignity, justice and equality,” according to an English translation of its website.

The group, generally referred to by the acronym PROMSEX, was founded in 2005 to advocate for “a more just society for all people, free from gender stereotypes and prejudices.” During her time with the group, Shoffner appears to have run a blog for the group, called PERUsing Lima. The blog was taken down at some point between November 2023 and August 2025, before Shoffner announced her Senate bid. Her work at the nonprofit is not listed on her LinkedIn page or on her campaign website.

But a Daily Wire review of Shoffner’s social media accounts and an archived version of the blog appear to confirm her involvement. In one LinkedIn post, she touted how she led a “Gay Pride Parade” in Peru in July 2010.

“I marched in Lima’s 9th Annual Gay Pride Parade yesterday (Saturday, July 10, 2010). Now, when I say I marched in Lima’s 9th Annual Gay Pride Parade, I marched in the FRONT of Lima’s 9th Annual Gay Pride Parade. I mean in the very front. Leading the charge. My org, Promsex, funded the parade so our staff carried the opening banner,” she wrote at the time, according to an internet archive of the blog available on the Wayback Machine.

Shoffner’s behavior poses a sharp contrast to her state’s views on transgender issues. Arkansas has been a leader in socially conservative legislation related to transgender surgery for minors. The state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has aggressively pursued policies to protect women’s spaces from transgender-identifying men. She won her office by nearly thirty percentage points.

Shoffner said her experience “celebrating being gay, lesbian, transexual, [and] bisexual” was “incredible!”

“On occasion, while we were marching, I would stop to take a photo of the very colorful line behind us. When I did, I saw that the front truck would stop too. So when I say I was leading the parade, I’m not kidding. It was incredible!”

“The celebration of who you are and what you believe (a celebration of self-love and pride with pure happiness) also defies the nay-sayers. And what were we celebrating? Yes, we were celebrating being gay, lesbian, transexual, bisexual…we were even celebrating being straight. But, primarily, we were celebrating love and humanity’s ability to love. That is what we should be most proud of. Some of Promsex’s staff…I’m so happy to be a part of the family!” she continued.

The blog also featured numerous photos of the parade, including shots of Shoffner herself.

Shoffner did not respond to a request for comment.

Republicans have criticized Shoffner, saying that her values make her a poor representative for Arkansas.

“Hallie Shoffner’s organization funded a trans-pride parade in Peru, she led the parade, and then she tried to hide it from Arkansans — what else is Hallie Shoffner hiding?” Bart Hester, President pro tempore of the Arkansas Senate, told The Daily Wire in a statement. “Arkansas has led the way in protecting our kids from trans surgeries, even when far-left activists attacked us. We were the first state to ban these harmful surgeries.”

“We also passed a law offering recourse to children who are victims of trans surgeries,” he continued. “It’s one thing for Hallie Shoffner to lead a trans pride parade in Peru, but for her to cover it up and try to hide the evidence shows she should be running for Senate in California, not in Arkansas.”

Cotton has introduced legislation to limit minors who have received “gender-transition procedures” from pursuing damage if they choose to do so afterward.

“Gender-transition procedures aren’t safe or appropriate for children. Unfortunately, radical doctors in the United States perform dangerous, experimental, and even sterilizing gender-transition procedures on young kids, who cannot even provide informed consent,” Cotton said in a 2023 statement on the proposal.

Shoffner appears to have worked at PROMSEX while obtaining her Master’s of Public Service at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service, which said that Shoffner “developed a fundraising strategy and donor database” for the organization, according to the school’s webpage.

Currently, PROMSEX’s main initiative is NosoTrans, “a project that seeks to help trans women in vulnerable situations exercise their right to health, especially for hormone therapy processes, by accessing safe, reliable and transphobia-free health services in six areas of southern Lima.”