Marjorie Taylor Greene calls gay Democrat a “groomer” in wake of LGBTQ club shooting

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called an out gay state lawmaker a “groomer,” which is a term for someone who attempts to sexually abuse children.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) tweeted that the word “groomer” is “categorically an anti-LGBTQ hate word” on Sunday, likely in response to the shooting at the LGBTQ bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Saturday night that left five people dead and at least 18 injured.

“If you call someone groomer, you’re inciting violence against LGBTQ people,” he wrote.

“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. The process usually involves training the victims to keep secrets from adults they trust and desensitizing them to sexual discussions and touching, and the goal is the sexual abuse of children.

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It has become an all-purpose invective used against LGBTQ people and allies this past year, part of the homophobic and transphobic stereotype that LGBTQ people are a threat to children.

And Greene decided to throw that slur at Wiener.

“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,” she said. Gender-affirming genital surgery is not performed on minors, transgender children aren’t “confused,” state governments aren’t removing kids from parents to get gender-affirming surgery, doctors providing health care to a tiny and marginalized community could be making more money elsewhere, and Wiener isn’t a communist.

She was referring to her bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, including reversible puberty blockers that have been shown to reduce lifelong suicide risk among transgender people who want them. Her bill would also make gender-affirming care more difficult for transgender adults to access and would ban medical schools from teaching about gender-affirming care.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, and other major medical/mental health organizations all support gender-affirming care for pubescent youth when appropriate.

She was criticized on the platform.