Anti-trans campaigners using similar tactics of anti-abortion movement, says report

The right's attack on transgender Americans will not abate. To the contrary, I think it will escalate. Media Matters just published just how the right will attempt to smear trans people and gender-affirming healthcare.  They are using the same tactics as the anti-abortion movement

I'm going to condense and summarize, but feel free to read the full article as well the links cited (which are not present in my summary). Take this guide to heart, memorize it, and share it. Trust me when I say you are going to need it:

As threats against trans people, particularly trans youth, and abortion access mount, anti-LGBTQ activists are adopting decades-old media tactics from the anti-abortion movement. 

1. Tactic: Pushing extremist rhetoric through right-wing media allies 

Anti-abortion movement: Prime-time host Bill O’Reilly tormented abortion providers during his reign on Fox, amplifying violent rhetoric and publicly naming providers. Most notably, O’Reilly frequently targeted Dr. George Tiller for his work providing late-term abortions and repeatedly referred to him as “Tiller the baby killer.”

Anti-LGBTQ extremists: Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ most watched evening host and arguably the face of the cable network, has recently led the network’s campaign against trans people, regularly lobbing attacks against gender-affirming care. In one segment, Carlson lauded a group that launched a harassment campaign against a children’s hospital providing care for trans youth.

2. Tactic: Courting sympathetic coverage from mainstream national outlets

 Anti-abortion movement: Before the Supreme Court reversed Roe, mainstream outlets had long treated reproductive health as a political football, trivializing the issue and embracing “both sides” framing in covering abortion extremism. 

 Anti-LGBTQ extremists: Anti-LGBTQ activists have also taken to mainstream outlets to spread transphobia on an even wider scale. Major TV news outlets have failed to adequately cover the legislative onslaught of bills targeting queer Americans. For instance, when an extreme anti-trans bill was introduced in Alabama, mainstream TV ignored the story, picking it up only after the legislation had passed and giving a friendly platform to the bill’s proponents.

3 .Tactic: Publicizing personal information about adversaries 

Anti-abortion movement: In the 1990s, anti-abortion extremists developed an online resource known as the Nuremberg Files, distributing the personal information of over 200 abortion providers and publicizing their photos, addresses, and family members. According to Cosmopolitan, “When Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion provider in Buffalo, New York, was assassinated in 1998, the Nuremberg Files drew a line through his name.” 

 Anti-LGBTQ extremists: Anti-LGBTQ extremists have launched aggressive harassment campaigns against schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals while publicly soliciting donations to sustain the momentum. Faced with these threats, hospitals providing lifesaving medical care for trans people are scrubbing their websites of valuable information to protect their patients and staff, creating barriers to access for individuals seeking gender-affirming care.

4. Tactic: Co-opting images for nefarious uses and promoting pseudoscience 

Anti-abortion movement: In an effort to scare the public and stigmatize abortion care, anti-abortion activists have used manipulative graphic imagery and discredited studies. Anti-choice groups have often shared these unsettling images of “aborted fetuses” on social media without repercussion. Junk science has continued to spread post-Roe as anti-choice outlets rushed to discredit abortion medication and contraceptive drugs, 

Anti-LBGTQ extremists: In their attempts to delegitimize gender-affirming care, anti-LGBTQ figures are co-opting manipulative imagery and pushing junk science. Conservative media figure Matt Walsh promoted his anti-trans documentary by using a shirtless photo of a trans man without permission, leading the man depicted to ask Walsh to remove his images. . . Deceptive pseudoscience has also been employed by right-wing media and think tanks to demonize gender-affirming care despite the reality that this care remarkably improves the mental health and well-being of trans and nonbinary youth. 

5. Tactic: Vilifying Planned Parenthood 

Anti-abortion movement: As the country’s largest provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood has experienced decades of right-wing attacks. For years, the bad-faith group Center for Medical Progress has falsely asserted that Planned Parenthood sells fetal body parts. 

Anti-LGBTQ extremists: Anti-LGBTQ activists launched a smear campaign against Planned Parenthood and its chain of nationwide medical clinics because of resources the nonprofit provides for LGBTQ individuals. Outlets such as The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire have condemned Planned Parenthood’s options for gender-affirming care and LGBTQ support.

'TN GOP threatens Vanderbilt over trans healthcare while CA provides safe haven for trans kids' & other Mon midday news briefs

Tennessee GOP urges pediatric clinic to stop providing gender-affirming surgeries - They are following the narrative of 'surgeries' even though they have been told the truth. What they are actually doing is attempting to interfere in ALL transgender healthcare. They want to outlaw it all but are too cowardly to admit it. 

California governor signs bill offering legal refuge to transgender youths - Now you see why things like what is being done in California are important. 

Maryland's Wes Moore Vows to Protect LGBTQ+ Rights as Governor - He has my vote, if I lived in Maryland. 

A trans woman made a map of affirming clinics. Hateful people turned it into a hit list.​ - Hateful people are always transforming positive things into vessels of evil intent.

American Attitudes on Transgender-Related Policies - Conservative and religious right false narratives about trans athletes, trans healthcare, and education in schools is unfortunately working. Now that we know this, let's do something about it. 

The gayest movies and TV shows coming to streaming in October 2022 -Works for me.

Video - October is LGBT History Month. Celebrate the lives of 31 Icons in 31 Days

October is LGBT History Month and in commemoration, the Equality Forum presents its annual 31 Icons for 31 Days. This is when the organization spotlights an LGBT icon from history for each day of October.

This year's LGBT History Month comes at a poignant time as our community is handling a backlash. Ignorant people on the right attempt to erase our lives and reduce us to pathetic sexual caricatures. This  year's list is a reminder that LGBT people cannot erased and we will not allow the value of our lives to be diminished because of some people's refusal to see us through anything else but their bigoted lens.  

Taken out-of-context video fuels ugly lie about drag queens 'grooming' children

The anti-LGBTQ industry used this footage to claim that LGBTQ people are 'grooming kids.' Like so many other times, they got the story wrong.

Pride Week in Chattanooga, Tennessee ended up as a lesson on how the anti-LGBTQ industry are ruthless when it comes to spreading lies about LGBTQ people harming children. Take a look at this tweet below courtesy low-budget clout chaser Andy Ngo and failed Congressional candidate Robby Starbuck, particularly the first 12 second:

Tennessee: Video recorded at the Chattanooga Pride youth event at @WanderLinger Brewing Company on Saturday shows a child stroking a performer’s groin area & children watching provocative drag dance routines. Video published by @robbystarbuck: pic.twitter.com/9DoGCXQygx

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 25, 2022

This happened during the Chattanooga Pride Youth Day last weekend. As you can see, Starbuck and Ngo said that the woman dressed as the Little Mermaid was actually a drag queen (i.e a man in costume) and encouraged the child to rub his crotch. 

And they weren't the only ones. As those of us who monitor this stuff can guess, the video was filtered through the far-right blogsphere repeatedly as many conservative pundits, groups and provocateurs added their two cents about how children are being 'sexually groomed' by LGBTQ people and our allies.

If you doubt what I say, feel free to read the response thread of the above tweet. But trust me when I say it is ugly. The tweet of course has gone viral with over one million hits and counting. And it has caused a huge controversy in the city about drag shows.

But as they generally always do, Ngo, Starbuck, and the rest got the entire story wrong. 

According to Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Republican Robby Starbuck, who was removed from the GOP primary ballot for a Nashville area congressional seat earlier this year under Republican rules about bona fide candidates, posted a video taken Saturday at Chattanooga Pride's Youth Pride Event at WanderLinger Brewing Co. 

 The moment that appears to have attracted the most attention on social media shows a girl running her hand along the front of a performer's sequined costume. The performer was dressed as Ariel from "The Little Mermaid." "It's NOT hard to redirect a kid away from that area if they grab near your crotch," Starbuck wrote. "We have to stop this madness!" 

Some commenters assumed the performer was a man.

"The individual portraying Ariel is not a drag performer but a biological female that does princess parties all over Chattanooga," Chattanooga Pride said in a statement issued Monday. "Her tail was made out of a reversible sequin fabric, which is why the younger child was touching it. What the video did not show was the performer redirecting the child by shifting to the side

. "In addition, some of the clips circulating about one of the performers (she is also a biological female) was from a completely different event, that was not affiliated with Chattanooga Pride. This event was also marketed as 18 and up. Due to this, no minors were present.

Unfortunately, the controversy has caused a lot of problems. The organizers of Chattanooga Pride and the owner of where the event was held, WanderLinger Brewing Co, said that they have been receiving death threats.

In an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, WanderLinger Brewing Co co-owner Chris Dial called out those who spread the video:

"One of the worst parts is, it feels like it's targeted hate in my opinion," he said. "The pictures that they took and the videos that they're using, they're claiming things that aren't even accurate."

 In addition to the actress portraying Ariel, he said, commenters singled out Von Tonic, who is also a biological woman, for a leg kick she performed during a dance set to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5." "The families that were in attendance had no issue with what occurred," Dial said. "They've supported us on social media, defending their choice, their children and Chattanooga Pride."

Naturally the video has caused a lot of controversy in the city and I doubt it will end any time soon.

This is not new scenario for many LGBTQ bloggers and journalists like myself:

1. Anti-LGBTQ industry takes a situation out of context (often times deliberately) and spreads their version of it.

2. Outrage ensues, anti-LGBTQ industry feeds off of it 

3. The so-called normies demand action either from their Congressional or local leaders.

4. The truth comes out but by then folks are either too angry or too exhausted to realize that they have been manipulated.

5. Meanwhile those who instigated the nonsense slink away without any punishment to repeat the cycle again.

What bothers me mostly is that if this had happened at an event other than Pride, we wouldn't be having this ruckus. That little girl would have been able to feel the actress's costume up, down, and sideways and folks watching the video would think it was cute.

But since the event was LGBTQ-oriented, it was easy to fool people and get them alarmed. That  proves a sad but necessary-to-know fact. No matter how easy going and open-minded some people claim to be about us, the truth is they don't look at us like regular human beings. They don't see us as normal. 

They are like that character in the movie The Color Purple - Miss Millie, the mayor's wife. She pretended to like and be concerned about black people, but secretly she feared them because she thought they were going to hurt her the moment she put her guard down.

We have a lot of Miss Millies in the country today. They say they are 'tolerant' (I hate that word) of LGBTQ people and they claim they have no problem with us. Secretly though, they think everything we do and say surrounds having sex. They think our lives are x-rated and unsuitable for children from time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed.

And that makes it easy for the anti-LGBTQ industry to manipulate them. 

People like Andy Ngo, Starbuck, and sites like Libs of TikTok (because you just know it was knee deep in sharing that mess) created deceptions like this before and they will do it again. That is until people pay more attention to just who is exploiting their fears and anger instead of the latest outrage they're peddling.

Related posts: 

Drag Performer Sues Right-Wing Blogger Over Indecent Exposure Claims 

Anti-LGBTQ site Libs of TikTok deletes tweet after attempt to smear teachers as 'groomers' backfire 

Libs of TikTok still threatening to lie about children's hospitals even after Twitter suspension 

Babylon Bee editor Seth Dillon caught spreading false story about a child tipping a half naked drag queen

BUSTED! Far right caught spreading false story that a drag queen exposed self to children

'A week in escalating anti-LGBTQ violence' & other Thur midday news briefs

Doxxed Doctors, Library Bomb Threats, and Attacks on Pride Centers: A Week in Escalating Anti-LGBTQ Violence​ - No joke. I have never seen anything like this. 

The LGBTQ-owned bookstore that rallied a community - But as you can see, we are fighting back in our own way. 

GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker says trans kids won’t go to heaven - Georgia, please don't send this guy to Washington.

Watch Pete Buttigieg's Devastating Takedown of Fla.'s Ron DeSantis - Ouch.

LGBTQ-friendly church OK with getting Southern Baptist boot - You're better off without them.

'A Drag Queen In Ever Classroom' - the funniest political ad of the 2022 midterms

Mid-term elections are zanier than presidential elections. This year is no different and in fact probably the strangest you will ever see. The GOP looks like they may gain control of the House, but not the Senate and not the majority of state governorships.

You see, they have a problem. In a midterm in which they are supposed to totally wreck the Democratic party, their base have picked bizarre candidates, some who can't campaign their way out of a paper bag. Case in point, Tudor Dixon, former actress who appeared in some very awful horror movies including one in which depicted women being urinated on by male zombies, is trying to portray herself as the upstanding opposite of current Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.

It's presently not.working because she is way behind the polls. I wonder why . . . 

New ad from MAGA MI Gov candidate Tudor Dixon says Gretchen Whitmer wants “a Drag Queen in every classroom.” pic.twitter.com/7tyqrT5RXg

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 28, 2022

Maybe it's just me, but a drag queen in every classroom doesn't sound bad at all.

'Drag performer sues right-wing blogger over indecent exposure claims' & other Wed midday news briefs

Drag Performer Sues Right-Wing Blogger Over Indecent Exposure Claims​- It's about time someone stepped up. I hope he wins. It will send a message to those folks lying about drag performers. 

LGBTQ people are protesting in Harlem as Columbia University tries to buy their neighborhood - Good story. 

LGBTQ Italians on alert as right-wing alliance triumphs in election - Meanwhile, fascism is popular again in Italy. And it doesn't bode well for LGBTQ Italians. 

One in three Republicans say they don't want more LGBTQ people in Congress: poll - They will get over it.