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class="styl_ntaer__ZKkl3" data-activy-map="social-share-lks-article-top" data-ttid="social-share-menu"><li data-ttid="social-share-facebook" class="styl_em__b5A78 styl_facebook__bOW_X"><a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="styl_lk__RsJVU"><span class="in in-share-facebook"></span></a></li><li data-ttid="social-share-twter" class="styl_em__b5A78 styl_twter__ww7sF"><a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="styl_lk__RsJVU"><span class="in in-twter"></span></a></li><li data-ttid="social-share-ptert" class="styl_em__b5A78 styl_ptert__CaMm1"><a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="styl_lk__RsJVU"><span class="in in-share-ptert"></span></a></li><li data-ttid="social-share-email" class="styl_em__b5A78"><a href="mailto:?subject='Groomer,' 'pro-pedophile': Old trop fd new life anti-LGBTQ movement& target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="styl_lk__RsJVU"><span class="in in-share-email"></span></a></li><li data-ttid="social-share-py" class="styl_em__b5A78 styl_py__RACZ3"><button type="button" class="styl_button__b3sx_"><span class="in in-lk"></span></button><div class="styl_pyTooltip__Ut_t1"><span class="in in-alt-check"></span></div></li><li data-ttid="social-share-sms" class="styl_em__b5A78 styl_sms__Vohh6"><a href="sms:?&body='Groomer,' 'pro-pedophile': Old trop fd new life anti-LGBTQ movement via nbews - target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="styl_lk__RsJVU"><span class="in in-sms"></span></a></li><li data-ttid="social-share-prt" class="styl_prt__cw6Gn"><button type="button" class="styl_button__b3sx_"><span class="in in-share-prt styl_in__P3XZT"></span><span class="styl_text___8iNX">Prt</span></button></li><li data-ttid="social-share-save" class="styl_save__ILVuj"></li></ul></div><div class="article-body__date-source"><time class="relative z-1" dateTime="2022-04-12T16:54:43.986Z" ntent="2022-04-12T16:54:43.986Z">April 12, 2022, 4:54 PM UTC</time></div><div class="article-le-byle" data-activy-map="le-byle-article-top">By <span class="byle-name"><a href=">Matt Laviet</a></span></div></sectn><div class="article-body__ntent article-body-font--loadg"><p class="">The natnal war of words over whether stunts should learn about LGBTQ issu school — igned by a recently enacted Florida law that crics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — has taken a charged, and some say dangero, turn over the last several weeks. </p><p class="">In early March, the prs secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis <a href=">tweeted</a> that anyone who oppos the bill “is probably a groomer or at least you don’t nounce the groomg of 4-8 year old children.” Several days later, Fox News host Lra Ingraham asked her lns of viewers, “When did our public schools, any schools, bee what are sentially groomg centers for genr inty radils?” </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><div id="taboolaReadMoreBelow"></div><p class="">On Wednday, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took thgs a step further, <a href=">tweetg</a> that “Democrats are the party of killg babi, groomg and transng children, and pro-pedophile polics,” reference to the legislatn. That same day, a <a href=">sce-leted tweet</a> accsed by NBC News through the Wayback Mache Inter Archive, the nservative podst host Jack Posobiec <a href=">urged</a> his 1.7 ln followers to buy T-shirts that say “Boytt Groomers, brg ammo” and rporate the famo Disney stle logo and signature font. (The pany, which has a large footprt Florida, has bee a equent target of nservative policians and punds for nouncg the state’s legislatn.)</p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_small__5hUB_"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1240px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 758px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="A Disney parody t-shirt" height="2470" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer" data-ttid="ptn__ntaer">A Disney parody T-shirt.</span><span class="ptn__source">Brg Ammo LLC</span></figptn></figure><p class="">This type of language — which had, at least the past , appeared to be relegated to the margs of the far-right movement — has even ma s way beyond policians and polil punds. Durg a Fox News terview on Sunday, the Pulzer Prize-wng playwright David Mamet <a href=">said</a> that children are “not only beg doctrated but groomed” and that “teachers are cled, particularly men bee men are predators, to pedophilia.”</p><p class="">Alejandra Caraballo, a clil stctor at Harvard Law’s Cyber Law Clic and a transgenr-rights advote, said g such language is “an attempt at the humanizatn and legimizatn of queer people’s inti by associatg them wh pedophilia and child groomg.”</p><p class="">“What terrifi me is that when you start labelg groups wh that, the lls for vlence are evable,” she said. </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><p class="">The recent rhetoric mirrors that of a QAnon nspiracy theory — known as “pizzagate” — which claimed that a Washgton, D.C., pizzeria was harborg a child sex-traffickg rg wh nnectns to Hillary Clton. The nspiracy theory, which was bunked by the FBI and Washgton police, prompted a North Carola man<strong> </strong>to fire a rifle the pizzeria. He was ultimately <a href=">sentenced</a> to four years behd bars.</p><p class="">The word “groomg” — which has long been<strong> </strong>associated wh mischaracterizg LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgenr women, as child sex abers — was mentned on Twter 7,959 tim on March 29, the day after Florida’s tn bill was <a href=">signed</a> to law, pared wh jt 40 tim on the first day of this year, Caraballo found through data she pulled om Twter.</p><p class="">The legislatn,<strong> </strong>officially tled the <a href=">Parental Rights Edutn bill</a>, bans teachg about sexual orientatn or genr inty “ krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.”</p><p class="">Proponents of the measure have ntend that giv parents more discretn over what their children learn school and say LGBTQ issu are “not age-appropriate” for young stunts.</p><p class="">At the Florida bill-signg ceremony, DeSantis, who is wily believed to be nsirg a n for the 2024 GOP printial nomatn, said that opponents of the measure “support sexualizg kids krgarten” and “mouflage their te tentns.” He add that the law would ensure “that parents n send their kids to school to get an tn, not an doctratn.”</p><p class="">Tiffany Jtice, an arnt supporter of the <a href=">measur limg LGBTQ stctn schools</a> and the -founr of Moms for Liberty, a natnal work of about 80,000 parents whose missn is to fend parental rights schools, said that the LGBTQ muny is “a part of the fabric of Ameri.” </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><p class="">Simultaneoly, she said that “we have reached a pot now where we need to ll this what this is,” referrg to the rhetoric surroundg the law.</p><p class="">“If you want to talk to my first grar about sex and sexual inty and genr inty and sexual orientatn, and I don’t want you to and you’re dog anyway, you’re groomg my child whout my permissn,” said Jtice, who is also a mother of four school-age children<strong>.</strong> “And if anyone says that they don’t like that label, then I say stop msg wh our kids.”</p><p class="">Stt Hadland, the chief of adolcent and young adult medice at MassGeneral Hospal for Children and Harvard Medil School, lled the law and the recent rhetoric surroundg “fear-based.”</p><p class="">“I’ve red for, my more than a of clil practice, hundreds of kids who intify as LGBTQ and the number of tim that somebody has shared wh me that they me to unrstand their velopment bee they were nvced to bee LGBTQ by a teacher, or another muny member, or a physician is exactly zero,” Hadland said. “This do not happen. This is not how young people tablish their inti.”</p><p class="">The tactic of labelg one’s polil adversari as “groomers,” or suatg that they are tryg to prime children for sexual abe, is nothg new, said Michael Bronski, a profsor of women and genr studi at Harvard Universy and thor of “A Queer History of the Uned Stat for Young People.”</p><p class="">“There’s a long tradn of makg accatns agast a mory group, potentially an unpopular one, g the notn of vlatg childhood nocence, which is seen as the worst possible thg that you uld do — to abe the child sexually,” Bronski said. </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><div class="remend-tersectn-ref" data-activy-map="remend-article-body-remend" data-ttid="remend-wrapper"></div><p class="">“Overwhelmgly, they were never about the children,” he add, referrg to the accatns. “They were about mobilizg power wh the culture and dog polil anizg around .”</p><div class="remend-tersectn-ref" data-activy-map="remend-article-body-remend" data-ttid="remend-wrapper"></div><p class="">Bronski relled former bety queen Ana Bryant’s “Save Our Children” mpaign 1977, which pated gays and lbians as a threat to the untry’s youth. That year, her mpaign was succsful overturng a newly passed Miami-Da County law that prohibed discrimatn based on sexual orientatn hog, employment and public servic.</p><p class="">“Homosexuals nnot reproduce, so they mt rec. And to hen their ranks, they mt rec the youth of Ameri,” Bryant famoly clared.</p><p class="">Des after Bryant fortified a reputatn as one of the untri most notor anti-LGBTQ activists, her granddghter me out as a lbian durg an episo of Slate’s <a href=">“One Year” podst</a> and revealed that she was engaged to a woman. </p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_medium__OMa6x"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Ana Bryant" height="1650" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer" data-ttid="ptn__ntaer">Sger-turned-polil activist Ana Bryant speaks at a prs event Miami Beach, Fla., June 1977.</span><span class="ptn__source">Bettmann via Getty Imag file</span></figptn></figure><p class="">When asked why the old trop, popular Bryant’s day, have rurfaced now, Bronski poted<strong> </strong>to several LGBTQ policy ws recent years — most notably the 2015 Supreme Court cisn legalizg same-sex marriage, and the 2020 Supreme Court cisn that won LGBTQ people natnwi protectn om workplace discrimatn — and greater numbers of Amerins intifyg as part of the LGBTQ muny.</p><p class="">The percent of U.S. adults who intify as somethg other than heterosexual has doubled over the last 10 years, om 3.5 percent 2012 to 7.1 percent, acrdg to a <a href=">Gallup poll</a> released Febary.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><p class="">“If you have visibily for anythg, whether be for Black Liv Matter, whether be for femism, whether be for LGBTQ inti, you are fact creatg a cultural space for people to learn about and nsir ,” Bronski said. “Any form of social progrs engenrs backlash.” </p><p class="">The backlash is what worri Caraballo. She not that June 12 will be the sixth anniversary of the mass shootg that killed 49 at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida. </p><p class="">Hate crim agast LGBTQ people across the untry are down overall, acrdg to <a href=">FBI data released last year</a>, but have risen for cints motivated by genr inty wh the past two years. Late last year, LGBTQ Amerins were spooked when feral prosecutors arrted a man who they said threatened to attack this year’s New York Cy Pri March wh “firepower” that would “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shootg look like a kewalk.” And this month, a man walked to a New York Cy gay bar, Rash Bar, wh a bottle of flammable liquid, poured on the bar’s floor, l a match and set the venue on fire.</p><p class="">Caraballo said that social media pani like Twter have a rponsibily to curtail the rhetoric om proliferatg onle and th stem the threats of vlence.</p><p class="">“What worri me is that ’s gog to take people gettg killed for them to fally crack down,” Caraballo said. “I fear we’re gog to end up wh another Pulse.”</p><p class="">“My msage to social media pani is,” she add, “‘Don’t wa till you have blood on your hands.’”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt" data-ttid="ad__ntaer"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100" data-ttid="ad__ntaer__ner"></div></div><p class="">Twter did not immediately rpond to a requt for ment ncerng several of the more high-profile tweets mentng the word “groomg” associatn wh the new law. </p><p class="">One of the tweets me om DeSantis’ prs secretary, Christa Phaw, on March 4: “The bill that liberals accurately ll ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately scribed as an Anti-Groomg Bill.”</p><p class="">Phaw elaborated an email, sayg that “the assumptn that cricism of groomg is cricism of the LGBTQ muny equat LGBTQ people to groomers, which is both bigoted and accurate.”</p><p class="endmark"><strong><em>Follow </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>NBC Out</em></strong></a><strong><em> on </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>Twter</em></strong></a><strong><em>, 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