Step off! The Right Wing Smear of the Trevor Project Will Not Be Tolerated
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Back the fuck up… the latest salvo by the right wing nuts will be not be tolerated. Especially as it is directed at one of our universally beloved institutions: the Trevor Project.
The latest round of right-wing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community has included portraying LGBTQ+ people as groomers and actions taken in defense of LGBTQ+ youth by non-profits, political and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups as outright acts designed to commit paedophilia.
The latest and highly visible target in this latest round of vitriolic rhetoric aimed at denigrating the LGBTQ+ community is The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people.
The conservative anti-LGBTQ+ Florida-based ‘Mom’s for Liberty,’ a group that claims to approximately 85,000 members with chapters in over 35 states, retweeted a 36-year-old blogger, Colin Wright, who proudly describes himself as a person dedicated to efforts on combatting gender ideology and pseudoscience about sex.
Research shows that Wright is best described based on his views as an anti-trans extremist. He currently is a writer for right-wing site Quillette and founder of Reality’s Last Stand.
On Wednesday, April 26, Wright took aim at The Trevor Project using a social media cartoon published during the height of the coronavirus pandemic by the organisation to educate LGBTQ+ youth on a safety feature of the Trevor website in the case of potential problematic interaction with parents who may not be aware or approve of LGBTQ+ feelings, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Moms For Liberty within hours quote-tweeted Wright and complained that that the organization is “encouraging children to keep secrets from their parents.”
A spokesperson for a LGBTQ+ advocacy organization speaking on background pointed out that LGBTQ+ youth have good reason to keep secrets of this nature from their parents due to justified fears of being abused, shunned, become homeless, or even killed if they come out to their parents. Then too there is the high probability and risk of suicide, the very mission and purpose for Trevor’s existence.
Once the two tweets made their presence known in the netherworld of right-wing Twitter the proverbial pile-on got worse. Lauren Chen, a 27-year-old Canadian far-right political commentator on YouTube and Evie Magazine contributor contributed with a phrase that has since picked up as the primary conservative talking point in reference to the LGBTQ+ community, use of the term ‘groomer.’
Leftwing activists are predatory groomers.
If you sit around designing and promoting ways to get in touch with kids so you can discuss sexuality and keep it from their parents, you are a groomer.
Period. Full stop. https://t.co/HIoVIyL9jB
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) April 27, 2022
A spokesperson for the Trevor Project declined to comment instead telling the Blade on background; “We’ve chosen not to respond directly to these social media attacks and have no comment at this time.”
The Trevor Project also pointed to its own research on family rejection + support for LGBTQ youth:
- Many LGBTQ youth lack access to affirming spaces, with only 1 in 3 saying that their home to be LGBTQ-affirming. The Trevor Project’s research consistently finds that LGBTQ young people report lower rates of attempting suicide when they have access to LGBTQ-affirming homes.
- LGBTQ youth who report high levels of social support from family and friends are significantly less likely to attempt suicide compared to those with lower levels of social support.
As Thursday wore on the attacks on Trevor, many labeling the organization as nothing more than grooming young people continued. Anchorage, Alaska-based Suzanne Downing, who writes and edits the conservative right wing leaning blog Must Read Alaska, attacked the Trevor Project Thursday.
Writing in reference to the 2020 ordinance makes it illegal for licensed professionals in Anchorage to try to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, which was passed in consultation with Trevor, Downing writes:
“The Trevor Project, as it grooms children online, gives kids with an exit feature on its live-chat function that erases the chat history, so parents cannot monitor who is interacting with their children.
Children who stumble upon the Trevor Project are interacting with strangers who are taking an interesting the youngster’s sexuality.”
Downing wrote further about an incident regarding a parent posing as a teenager asking about gender issues:
“The mother, referred to here as Gloria though that’s not her real name, presented herself as confused about many things, but sure of being “not cishet,” and interested in knowing more about detransitioning. What emerged in the online chat with a representative from the Trevor Project was advocacy for transitioning, no information about detransitioning, and apparent certainty in the face of an uncertain teen who didn’t know where to go for help.
The Trevor Project guided Gloria to resources on hormones, including how to get them without parental awareness, chest binding, and an introduction into a community of teen transitioners.”
California State Senator Scott Wiener, a member of the California Assembly’s LGBTQ+ Caucus responded to the attacks on Trevor:
“.@TrevorProject literally saves LGBTQ teens’ lives – teens at risk of suicide who have nowhere else to turn for support. This despicable tweet is designed to prevent — & will have the effect of preventing — teens from reaching this life-saving service. Kids will die as a result.”
.@TrevorProject literally saves LGBTQ teens’ lives – teens at risk of suicide who have nowhere else to turn for support.
This despicable tweet is designed to prevent — & will have the effect of preventing — teens from reaching this life-saving service. Kids will die as a result. pic.twitter.com/sUzgad6Qb8
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) April 28, 2022
Media Matters researcher Kayla Gogarty noted in a April 16 article that after Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw used an anti-LGBTQ slander including use of the word groomer to defend Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill on March 4, right-wing media and figures used similar absurd attacks to defend the legislation, accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children to be LGBTQ or to engage in sexual activity.
Throughout March, right-wing figures and media responded to criticism of the extreme bill with ramped up attacks accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children — the same messaging initially tweeted by Pushaw on March 4. Simultaneously, right-wing media and figures also used anti-LGBTQ content from Libs of TikTok as ammunition for their arguments.
Libs of TikTok is an anonymous anti-LGBTQ Twitter account that started on TikTok but moved to Twitter in November 2020, where it singles out individual TikTok users, including teachers, for ridicule and harassment in tweets that often go viral. On April 13, Twitter briefly suspended the account for violating its policy against hateful conduct. The account has since been restored — even though Libs of TikTok has repeatedly misgendered public figures and content creators.
Since Pushaw used “grooming” language in her tweets on March 4, she has tweeted similar language another 22 times, earning over 23,000 total interactions, or an average of 1,000 interactions per post. This average is roughly triple that of her other tweets. Meanwhile, Libs of TikTok has continued to post anti-LGBTQ content, even replying to a Pushaw tweet and praising the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation as “literally genius” for exposing “creeps” and those that “identify themselves as pro-grooming.”
One LGBTQ+ activist told the Blade Thursday on background that the end result now is that weaponized use of the term “groomer” is rapidly increasing and will very likely manifest in a sharp up-tick in LGBTQ+ youth harming themselves as Trevor and other safe spaces are attacked and more of the so-called “Parental Rights” bills become law.
