Marjorie Taylor Greene calls gay Democrat a ‘groomer’ after Club Q shooting
Marjorie Taylor Greene is notorious for her anti-LGBTQ+ views. (Getty/Win McNamee)
Marjorie Taylor Greene has described a gay Democrat as a “groomer” in response to a post about the links between anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and violence.
Following the mass shooting at the LGBTQ+ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs, California state senator Scott Wiener wrote on Twitter: “The word ‘groomer’ is categorically an anti-LGBTQ hate word. It’s super homophobic/ transphobic.
“It plays into the slander that LGBTQ people are pedophiles. It’s no different than calling someone a f****t. If you call someone groomer, you’re inciting violence against LGBTQ people.”
Since the shooting at Club Q, which killed five and injured many more, there has been much discussion about the link between the attack and the hatred whipped up against the LGBTQ+ community by the far-right.
But, just three days after the shooting occurred, Greene responded to Weiner: “Pass my Protect Children’s Innocence Act to stop communist groomers like this from using state government power to take children away from their parents to allow a for-profit medical industry to chop off these confused children’s genitals before they are even old enough to vote.”
“Grooming”, which refers to the manipulative behaviours used by predators to sexually abuse children, has become a buzzword for many of America’s anti-LGBTQ+ ultra-conservatives.
Greene’s response refers to her bill, introduced this year, which would make providing gender-affirming care like medications and puberty blockers to minors a felony, and would even ban medical students from learning about gender-affirming care.
Gender-affirming care for minors has been backed by leading medical groups like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, and has been described by scientists as “life-saving”.
Of course, there are several examples of misinformation in Greene’s tweet.
Nowhere in the US are children being removed from their families simply to provide them with gender-affirming healthcare, and gender-affirming surgeries are not performed on under-18s.
But neither the facts nor the recent incidence of horrific anti-LGBTQ+ violence stopped Greene from throwing around the word “groomer” in reference to an openly gay legislator.
The Senator isn’t wrong. Your rhetoric lead to what happened in Colorado
— Joshua Mosher (@JMosher777) November 22, 2022
One Twitter user told Greene: “Your bio says ‘Christian’ yet you continue to lie. In the US, genital gender-affirming surgeries are not performed before a child is 18.”
Matthew Breen, political consultant for GLAAD, tweeted: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is knowingly inciting violence against LGBTQ people with this disgusting slur.”
Another Twitter user told the Colorado Republican: “This type [of] rhetoric is exactly why five people are dead and 19 wounded at Club Q in Colorado Springs, CO.
“Your disdain for people who are not like you is vile and disgusting. The blood of these hate crime victims is on your hands!”
