There was a debate among conservatives during the battle over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act over whether it was productive to call opponents of the legislation “groomers.” Twitter 1.0 even banned the G-word for a bit. The thing is, it was effective. It stuck. It hit a nerve. Christina Pushaw even put together a mosaic of all the stories about “groomer” accusations:
The last 24 hours in DC corporate media: pic.twitter.com/VR29ClrnvG
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) April 6, 2022
Some liberals hit back and said that Christian families were the real groomers, raising their young children to be religious like they are, without the children’s consent. We did a post on a blue-check who pushed back on the “groomer” tag by reminding us that most child sexual abuse takes place at home or in the church.
“Will conservatives call for a ban on minors in churches?” asks Ja’han Jones, who ghostwrites Joy Reid’s “ReidOut” blog for her.
By comparison, there have been no credible reports, to my knowledge, of child sexual abuse at drag shows. And, of course, I’m only making the comparison here because many conservatives — including religious leaders in the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention — falsely equate drag shows or LGBTQ people with sexual perversion. In response, Republican lawmakers are pushing measures that bar minors from attending drag shows.
Will there now be a widespread push to bar children from churches given the thousands of reported sexual abuse incidents nationwide? Don’t bet on it.
The numbers don’t lie: America’s children seem at far more risk in some places of worship than they would be at a drag show.
We don’t have MSNBC’s fleet of reporters, but we do know that a drag queen who took part in Drag Queen Story Hours for children was sentenced to a year in jail in Oregon for 11 child sexual abuse charges. And hateful bigots got Drag Queen Story Hour canceled as the Houston Public Library after they found out one of the readers had sexually assaulted an 8-year-old child.
We have more posts like that one, but the thing is, conservatives can do two things at once: condemn all child sexual abuse and seek to root it out wherever it appears (even in church) and want to protect children from adult-only sexually themed entertainment.
History will be cruel to MSNBC, we will use tweets like this to explain why they are going bankrupt
— Dennis Peterson (@Dpete9Peterson) May 30, 2023
So youre admitting drag shows are sexualizing children.
— Alex (@Rabidcow1) May 30, 2023
Nice try.
No sale.— Professor Terguson (@WeaselArmy) May 30, 2023
Weird that @msnbc and @thereidout only care about one. Most good people care about both.
— Michael Dalakis (@monkey449) May 30, 2023
You just showed me where you stand.
— Eddie, USN (Ret) 🇺🇸 (@eoverfelt) May 30, 2023
— BH (@bradyjholt) May 30, 2023
Wow y'all really going deep in the paint
— Joe Alderman (@TheJoeAlderman) May 30, 2023
Drag/pedophilia….Priests/pedophilia……same thing.
— Conspiracy Central (@Conspiracy6174) May 30, 2023
Now punishable by death in Florida!
Your data is 2k kids in the past 70 years in the Catholic Church? While one child is too many, what is the data on pedophiles who have gender dysmorphia?
The article's author just states "to my knowledge, there aren't credible reports". What is the data???
Illegitimate article.
— Holly (@hollyoxcoburn) May 30, 2023
Yes. There are a 100,000 times as many churches as drag shows. Both are wrong and entirely non sequitur.
— Gerd Hansma (@gmanndo) May 30, 2023
Hilariously wrong from a “news” staff who overwhelmingly self identify as MAP for MAP allies.
There was a time when saying someone was a NAMBLA member was a insult, now it’s just a part of their MSNBC résumé…
— JW (@C130GuyBNA) May 30, 2023
So you cool if we put them all in prison?
I’m 100% down for that
— 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐧 (@brianhorn) May 30, 2023
The people creating that risk are the same — in or out of the clergy.
— Watching The Defectives (@shannon_alter) May 30, 2023
Having the “Lavender Mafia” take over the seminaries a few decades ago didn’t help matters.
Good ol’ whataboutism.
— James Landrum (@JamesRLandrum) May 30, 2023
That church is correcting itself and it's systems, accordingly.
Drag shows and public schools are not self correcting. At all.— ingrid eckhoff (@countesskkkk) May 30, 2023
We can do something about both
— Matthew Battle (@librab103) May 30, 2023
And we are doing something about both. Something gives us the sneaking suspicion that MSNBC feels less pain about children abused in the church than they did excitement at knowing they could use the church for their whataboutism.
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Related:
Is Minnesota (state) Representative Leigh Finke trying to make pedophiles into a protected class?https://t.co/8Vij96uAfN
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 1, 2023
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