Last year, the Republican operatives made critical race theory into their go-to bogeyman in order to push their agenda into our schools. Now, we’re seeing an increase in perverted homophobic and anti-trans smears being deployed by the right in a similar pattern. Is this QAnon 2.0, or something new? We’re going to dig into what’s behind the GOP’s weird obsession with “grooming.”
Content warning: this resource is a frank explanation of homophobic and anti-trans tactics and goals pursued by Republicans. It contains references to sexual assault, child endangerment, and more.
What you need to know
- Republicans are talking a lot about pedophilia. In recent months, GOP candidates, elected officials, and media influencers have been increasingly obsessed with conversations about children’s sexuality. Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., Josh Hawley, and Majorie Taylor Greene have all been referencing pedophilia on television and social media—and Republican voters are listening.
- GOP officials across the country are using state governments to exercise this obsession. In March, both Florida and Texas’s Republican governors implemented new policies that punished teachers and parents for protecting, supporting, and educating students as it related to their gender identity and orientation. This month, red state legislatures are pushing a wave of new bills targeting student athletes, medical professionals, and families.
- This is an old tactic with terrifying new implications. The right wing has a history of accusing queer people of harming children, but their recent use of this tactic is specifically targeting and punishing children. Republicans are working hard to depict support and care for kids as acts of predation—or “grooming,” as they like to call it. This subjects loving families and dedicated teachers to surveillance and investigation while leaving kids isolated and vulnerable.
- This anti-LGBTQ bullshit is unpopular, but it’s at the center of the right wing’s multifront culture war. In addition to their ongoing CRT panic, bans on books, and harsh restrictions on abortion, Republicans are using perverted fictions about LGBTQ people to advance a bleak political and social agenda. If successful, they’ll restrict the teaching of American history, end same-sex marriage, ban reproductive choice, and create a country inhospitable for transgender people (and, of course, take control of Congress while they’re at it). The good news? A majority of Americans disagree with it.
Who’s impacted
Conservative political operatives are targeting children in this new wave of restrictive laws and pedophile narrative-building. The weaponization of kids and schools means that educators and families are also in their crosshairs—but the potential implications of this campaign are even wider-reaching.
Associating LGBTQ people with predation opens the door to violence and further state restrictions that go far beyond the classroom. Queer youth are particularly susceptible to these messages—in the first half of 2021 alone, 1 in 4 LGBTQ youth attempted suicide (yes, you read that right). Transgender people especially are among the most vulnerable groups, and they are bearing the brunt of this assault today. Meanwhile, Republicans are cueing up further attacks on same-sex couples (an even allies!) to ensure that non-heterosexual people are pushed back into the closet.
What’s behind the scenes
There’s a lot going on behind the Republican grooming obsession, but the simplest explanation is usually the right one: they think it will help them win. Yes, that means winning elections, but beyond that, they’re hoping this will solidify a regressive and energized minority coalition and pave the way for a huge rollback of civil rights.
- Electoral aspirations of Republican operatives mean that any tactic, no matter how gross, is worth engaging to win. Republicans like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis are focused on energizing their conservative base ahead of the midterms (and 2024 presidential primaries) and see these narratives and laws as an easy way to do that.
- QAnon-style conspiracy has gripped the Republican party since Trump came to prominence, and the “groomer” approach has similar origins. Right wing trolls on 4chan (the message board where QAnon was born) and their GOP-aligned boosters on Twitter (like Jack Posobiec, Libs of TikTok, and Chris Rufo) have promoted the effort to refer to any LGBTQ content as grooming. Sexual conspiracy and the GOP go together like peanut butter and jelly, it seems.
- Old-school social conservatism is underpinning of all of this. Rolling back public acceptance of transgender people and repealing legalized same-sex marriage has been a long-term project of the Republican party, even if they stopped talking about it for several years while public opinion turned against them. Now, they see an opportunity to revive those goals and punish the LGBTQ community for simply existing.
Why it’s important
The endgame here is much bigger than a weird and gross line of attack against political opponents. Republicans are trying to associate all of their targets with pedophilia in order to justify any measures against them. Meanwhile, it’s GOP officials who are pushing laws that would abolish age requirements for marriage, who are soliciting child pornography, and who obsess over the genitals of student athletes.
How we talk about it
- Republicans are sacrificing children at the altar of electoral strategy. None of this is about protecting kids or families—it’s about winning. The people pushing these perverted smears are willing to go to any lengths to achieve their goals. This is beyond “owning the libs,” it’s eliminating opposition.
- The GOP should be worried about their own pedophile problems. For a party that includes Rep. Matt Gaetz (accused of sex trafficking of minors), Rep. John Rose (who literally “groomed” his eventual wife from the age of 17 while he was 41), and former Speaker Dennis Hastert (a convicted child molester), Republicans sure do seem uninterested in cleaning their own house. Instead, they’re trying to make it easier to marry kids in Tennessee and continue unwavering support for Donald Trump, who has his own *bonkers* history of comments about attraction to children.
- This is just a new flavor of social conservative McCarthyism. Republicans are using this “groomer” campaign to target same-sex marriage, equal employment, and the right to privacy. This has nothing to do with protecting children—they’ve simply latched onto the most charged and politically potent line of attack they can launch at their opponents.
- Most people find this repulsive; we need more of them to vote. A majority of adults are against banning LGBTQ existence from schools, and most people agree with doctors that gender-affirming care should be accessible to transgender kids with the support of their parents and medical professionals. Everyone who cares about the safety and wellbeing of children should vote like it this year.
- Yes, this is an emergency. No, we’re not overreacting. We’re seeing a coordinated GOP effort to mainstream old-school homophobia and anti-trans rhetoric. With Republican state legislatures across the country pushing over 200 anti-LGBTQ bills and a firm 6-3 right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, we’re on the precipice of a major rollback of civil rights (that means the time to fight is now).
What else can we do
Don’t concede the conversation. If they want to talk about child endangerment, we should talk about the dangers the GOP poses to children:
- A longtime RNC staffer who worked to reelect Trump was recently convicted on child pornography charges, and specifically “requested videos of babies”.
- A staff attorney for GOP Governor Kay Ivey was arrested for child solicitation earlier this year.
- Donald Trump himself has admitted to barging into contestant dressing rooms while he was the owner of the Miss Teen USA pageant, specifically to see the undressed girls (the youngest of which was 15).
- Tennessee Republicans pushed a bill that would have legalized child marriage. Disgusting on its own, but also likely part of a ploy to undermine same-sex marriage by eliminating licensing protections.
Understand how these attacks are translating into real laws:
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