That time an 11-year-old girl eviscerated the religious right with six simple words

That time an 11-year-old girl eviscerated the religious right with six simple words

With Pride festivals around the nation canceled or postponed, LGBTQ Nation is bringing the celebration to you with our new series “Flashes of Pride.” We’ll look back at some of our community’s finest moments from the past few years as a reminder that no matter what life throws our way, queer people will fight our way through it and dance when we hit the other side.

In 2015, the religious right astroturf group One Million Moms called for a boycott of American Girl magazine for featuring a gay couple and their adopted children. The family fired back, but their 11-year-old daughter stole the spotlight with six words.

Related: Parades might get canceled, but Pride never will be

“Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature,” the group sent to followers and posted online. “American Girl doesn’t highlight other sins in their magazine.”

The organization is a project of the anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Association (AFA). The group’s “president” is the only member. She is also an employee of the AFA.

“These were moms!” Rob Scheer told local news. “These were moms that were saying that my family was wrong, that the love that my husband and I are giving our four kids and what we’re doing was wrong. I would expect moms not to say these type of things about our family.”

He also pointed out that if “these are a ‘million moms,’ they could really be helping the 364,000 kids in foster care. This is our family and it works for us. And you know what? We have four amazing kids that we adopted out of foster care. These are four kids that have fulfilled our life more than we ever thought.”

He had a special message for One Million Moms, too: “To the Million Moms, I say to them: ‘You know what? Go to your local foster care agency, those kids could really use your help and not worry about the Sheer family.’”

Their eleven-year-old daughter, Amaya, had a message for One Million Moms as well: “This is none of your business.”

Don't forget to share:

Good News is your section for queer joy! Subscribe to our newsletter to get the most positive and fun stories from the site delivered to your inbox every weekend. Send us your suggestions for uplifiting and inspiring stories.


Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Supreme Court denies state’s attempt to block transgender inmate’s surgery

Previous article

John Waters is pretty much like the rest of us. He’s just trying to survive coronavirus.

Next article