Gays Against Groomers is a gaslighting lie

 

The above tweet from is from a group not as well known but equally as insidious as that disgusting Libs of Tik Tok group. Gays Against Groomers (what they call themselves) claims to have chapters in several cities. Although I'm of the opinion that those "chapters" include few actual people and a lot of conveniently anonymous Twitter addresses.  As seen by the above tweet, the group claims to be comprised of LGBT people who are supposedly sick and tired of the  "queer and transgender ideologies."

Of course it's a bunch of bullshit.

To be honest, I think the Gays Against Groomers is one part astroturfed and one part including actual LGBTQ people. But the motive seems to be monetization of hatred and fear. To hear them tell it, legislation attacking drag shows, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQ equality in general isn't the fault of those pushing these acts. It's the fault of the "radials in our community" who are trying to "target" children and society in general with changes which would send us all into chaos. 

This is classic gaslighting. The narrative is that "the LGBTQ community would be fine if it weren't for these queer and trans activists perverting the message and grooming our kids." It's similar to the argument used by racists during the Civil Rights Movement - "Our Negroes were happy and fine with their lives until them uppity ones started putting ideas in their heads."

But there is a bit of cleverness to it. We know where Libs of TikTok stand. That particularly group thinks that our entire community is dangerous. The Gays Against Groomers folks are a bit more insidious. They don't the point the finger against the community in general. The group selectively pick who they deem as " radical queers and trans ideologists" who are causing problems for the so-called normal gay folks. Instead of casting a net over us all, Gays Against Groomers target the most seemingly vulnerable members of our community - transgender people (especially kids), drag queens, or anyone they categorize as 'odd' in our community - in an attempt to get the rest of us to scapegoat them.  And they use the phraseology to dehumanize them that the rest of the anti-LGBTQ industry uses to demonize all of us.  To them:

"Radical homosexual activists target children" is transformed to "radical queers and trans ideologists target children."

"Radical homosexual activists are grooming kids" is transformed to "drag queens are trying to groom kids" 

"Radical homosexual activists are trying to force society to accept their perversion" is transformed into "radical queers and the trans cult are trying to force society to accept their perversion."

But the new phraseology always comes with the inference of "and they are going to spoil things for the rest of the community who fought hard for their rights."

Remember when the religious right and conservatives freely said this about ALL of us.

Nothing has changed. But Gays Against Groomers helps them disguise their malice. It doesn't matter if they are astroturfing heterosexuals or self-hating LGBTQ folks trying to make the rest of us suffer for their own self-esteem issues. Or even worse - LGBTQ folks who don't care how many of their own people they hurt. The fact is Gays Against Groomers is a colossal lie and none of us should buy into their game. 

People leading attacks against drag queens and other facets of LGBTQ culture and equality do so because they are ignorant. No one is forcing them to do it. They certainly aren't doing it as a last result to a problem. They are doing it because they are either willfully ignorant or downright hateful of LGBTQ people. They accept the nonsense and cherry-picked lies they hear and act accordingly to because they refuse to know better.

And that's what these so-called Gays Against Groomers are feeding into. They know what they are doing. The key is for the rest of us in the LGBTQ community to not be fooled by it.