Lauren Boebert accuses Tyra Banks of “grooming” children

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) accused Tyra Banks of “grooming” because she’s producing a reality show about teen drag performers.

“Siri, define grooming,” Boebert wrote while retweeting the influential and anti-LGBTQ Chaya Raichik’s – aka “Libs of TikTok” – post about the upcoming Discovery+ reality series Generation Drag. Banks is the executive producer of the series as noted in the trailer that Boebert shared.

Related: Conservatives can’t stop calling people “groomer” & it’s hurting abuse victims

Get the Daily Brief

The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.

Boebert was accusing the show’s producers of grooming by saying “define grooming,” but she actually seems to be in need of the definition of that term.

“Grooming” is a set of manipulative behaviors sexual predators use to gain access to potential victims, to coerce them to agree to the abuse, and to reduce the risk of getting caught, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The process usually involves training the victims to keep secrets from adults they trust and desensitizing them to sexual discussions and touching.

Producing a documentary about teens wearing clothes and make-up is not grooming.

While the trailer for Generation Drag doesn’t show any pedophilia or child sex abuse, Raichik has gotten famous for using words like grooming and pedophilia to refer to LGBTQ people interacting with children and teens, implying that LGBTQ people are pedophiles. Boebert and other Republicans have jumped on the bandwagon just in time for the midterms.

Generation Drag follows the lives of five teen drag performers as they participate in a drag show called Dragutante. The six-episode series will debut on June 1.

“I have such admiration and respect for these teens,” Banks said in a press release. “They are bravely navigating coming into their own in a world that can be very challenging and not always accepting. What is so beautiful is seeing their parents and siblings supporting them.”