Video - 1961 film 'Boys Beware' pushed the 'gays are grooming children' lie years before Anita Bryant

The situation with Libs of TikTok accusing LGBTQ people and teachers of being pedophiles takes me back. There was an article which pointed out how Anita Bryant in the 1970s was probably the first person to harness the lie into political power.

But she certainly wasn't the first to exploit the lie. In 1961, there was an educational film shown to students called Boys Beware:

Shot in 1961 BOYS BEWARE was shot in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California and produced with the cooperation of the city's police department and the Inglewood Unified School District, is narrated by a police detective who is on his way to a school meeting to discuss the issue of sexual predators that attempt to lure young adolescent males. It not only shows basic misunderstandings about homosexuality but also attempts to prejudice the community against homosexuals who are portrayed as predatory at best, and basically as anti-social and evil.

It's a rather ridiculous film and can be seen as comedically ludicrous now. That is until you realize how the ideas it presents have been constantly recasted and believed by so many.