Visual montage - Just a few of the times conservatives have accused LGBTQ people of 'indoctrinating,' 'recruiting,' or 'grooming' children

So now in defense of Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law, folks are labeling LGBTQ people as 'groomers' who are targeting children for sex talk. It's an ugly claim, but it's hardly new. In fact the most potent weapon in the arsenal of the anti-LGBTQ industry for decades has been the accusation that gays are 'indoctrinating children,' 'recruiting children,' or (as it is spoken now) 'grooming children.'

It's powerful because it touches on the most primal fear of parents - that their children are going to be harmed. That fear coupled with the continued ignorance about  LGBTQ lives and our families (some people aren't even aware that we are raising children) becomes a powerful weapon which can be used to undermine our equality time and time again.

Below are just a few examples of conservatives and religious right playing the 'gays want your children' card over the years. Some go as far back as the mid 1980s

The images above were taken from the booklet Deathstyle, a vile anti-LGBTQ comic book.

Check out who endorsed Deathstyle:

I own a copy of  Deathstyle  but you can go here and here to see excerpts from it.

Amplifying that lie that LGBTQ are attempting to 'indoctrinate' or 'groom' children has been the conservative go-to tactic for a number of arguments against LGBTQ rights or as a general fear. Other examples are below: