A California Democrat complained on Wednesday that the LGBT community is being unfairly targeted by “groomer and pedophile” allegations on Twitter.
Speaking during a session of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on “Anti-LGBTQ” violence, Democrat Rep. Katie Porter took aim at people online who wanted to protect their children from being groomed into becoming gay or trans by older adults.
“The groomer narrative is an age-old lie, to position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids,” Porter told the committee. “What it does is it denies them access to public spaces, it can stoke fear, and it can even stoke violence.”
Kelley Robinson, the President of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest pro-LGBT civil rights organisation in the country, who appeared as a witness during the hearing, agreed with Porter, and argued that words like “groomer and pedophile” are only used to “dehumanise” them and “make us feel like we are not a part of this American society.”
“This allegation of groomer and pedophile, it is alleging that a person is criminal somehow, and engaged in criminal acts merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity,” Porter said. “This is clearly prohibited under Twitter’s content, yet you found hundreds of these posts on the platform.”
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) says that the terms "groomer and pedophile allege that a person is criminal somehow merely because of their sexual orientation and gender identity" and laments that Twitter allowed groomer "to reach 72 million users." pic.twitter.com/hi6tuAPm4F
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 14, 2022
Porter cited a report from the HRC, noting that following the passage of Florida’s anti-grooming bill, content referencing the idea grew by 400% on Twitter, with many conservatives and parents thankful that teachers would no longer be permitted from talking about sexuality and other age-inappropriate content with very young children.
“Instead of taking them down, Twitter elevated them, allowing them to reach an approximately 72 million users. This is not just about what happens online. What happens online translates into real harms in people’s lives,” Porter claimed, citing the Colorado gay club shooting in November, which was the focus of the hearing.
This is despite the fact that the suspect in the Club Q shooting, Anderson Lee Aldrich, is non-binary, a fact that CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota found hard to comprehend when discussing the news last month.
Watch in real time as CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota sees her network's narrative on the Colorado Springs gay night club shooting come crashing down. She was speechless that the shooter identifies as "non binary": "I don't know what to say about that." pic.twitter.com/mLdsZZlCds
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) November 23, 2022
Gays Against Groomers, an LGBT organisation dedicated to protecting children from “sexualisation and indoctrination,” argued that people are only being labelled as a groomer or a pedophile on Twitter if they are actually behaving like predators.
“We’re gay and no one ever calls any of us those things,” they tweeted. “We’re done letting predators use our community as a shield.”
Wrong! People are calling you groomers and pedophiles because you won’t stop sexualizing, indoctrinating and mutilating children.
We’re gay and no one ever calls any of us those things. Stop gaslighting everyone.
We’re done letting predators use our community as a shield. pic.twitter.com/8ziW4QP3OX
— Gays Against Groomers (@againstgrmrs) December 14, 2022
