Self-styled presidential hopeful and anit-LGBTQ+ Gov, of Florida - Ron De Santis
It’s not a great time to be an LGBTQ+ person in the USA right now and for a while now we have been caught in a political crossfire that is designed to create a ‘culture war’ that nobody wants or needs.
First of all there was were the slew of anti-trans bills that have been cropping up for a while now. These include banning trans children from competing in sports that ally with their chosen gender all the way to Gov Greg Abbott of Texas passing a bill that albeit criminalises the family or the doctors of transgender children who even attempt to treat them.
Protect trans kids
In Texas right now, even if you treat a child with gender dysphoria you can be accused of child abuse. Yep that’s right! CHILD ABUSE. Of course the politicians might not even believe this, it is all part of a grotesque game of politics instigated by the Trump years where Republicans now seem to think they need the votes of his base and are going to the further and further extremes to whip up the fear and loathing of the left, which includes LGBTQ+ people both young and old.
Reprehensible and revolting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Things seem to be going from bad to worse in the US 'culture wars' as it is now becoming regular practice for politicians and right-wing pundits to call anyone who is against the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ laws sweeping the country a 'groomer'.
At the front of the queue is horrendous congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene (above, sorry) . Her rap sheet is a litany of horror ranging from blatant transphobia, homophobia and antisemitism to bonkers QAnon lies, accusing victims of mass shootings of lying whilst all the while swearing she’s a God fearin’ gun totin’ family woman when clearly she is nothing of the sort and the WORST kind of ‘politician’.
A trying time
Last week she took two minutes out of her busy schedule of belching out hate speech from her hell mouth to stomp out a revolting tweet with her hideous twig fingers saying that the three REPUBLICAN senators who voted for Justice Ketanji Brown to become the first ever black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, 'pro-pedophile'. Yes that's right (again), if you disagree with someone in politics at the moment in the US, you just call them a pedophile.
Right-wing pundit and Trump apologist, Fox News's Laura Ingraham
Ketanji Brown, incidentally, was subjected to some of the most abhorrent lines of questioning by Republicans in the senate such as ‘are babies racist’, ‘define a woman’ (a tactic used at the moment to try and trap people into either being a transphobe or anti-women) and accused of going light on sentencing pedophiles, hence Marjorie Taylor Green’s nonsense.
It all goes hand in hand with the likes of Laura Ingraham of Fox News (again, above and sorry) who has repeatedly called those who are against the 'Don't Say Gay' bill and all the similar forthcoming ones 'groomers'. This is an old trope going back to the 80s, conflating queer people with pedophiles so it's making quite an unwelcome return right at a time when queer kids are being used as political pawns.
Bad news comes in 3s
In a statement, a GLAAD (media watchdog for LGBTQ+ people) spokesperson said: “This vile and false rhetoric has been used against LGBTQ people for decades; now it’s being used to smear anyone who supports our community and any political opponent. To deploy grotesque lies about an entire community and our allies to support censorship reveals the growing desperation of lawmakers and others who are failing to stop LGBTQ acceptance.”
LGBTQ+ ally Joe Biden has an uphill battle with an opposition party gone mad.
Deb Hauser, president of the sexual education organization Advocates for Youth also weighed in, saying: “It’s not only infuriating, but alarming, that the right has chosen to score political points by misusing the term groomer. Grooming is an important concept for understanding the prevention of child sexual abuse. It’s disgraceful to see the term being applied to people who are working to keep our children safe and our classrooms and communities inclusive of LGBTQ+ students and families — especially when LGBTQ+ students remain vulnerable to bullying and discrimination in schools.”
For the MILLIONTH time, these bills are designed to HARM LGBTQ+ children and their families. Not being able to even talk about having same sex parents or the fact that come boys like boys etc etc is incredibly damaging and rolls back YEARS of progress for queer people in the USA. A line is being drawn in the sand and if things continue the way they are now, there is going to be some sort of boiling/breaking point and it will NOT be pretty.