Charles Sutherland, an elementary school librarian who was arrested for spray painting the anti-gay slur “groomer” around the D.C. area during its 2022 Pride week, has been arrested for possessing child pornography. Police also found a child-sized doll in his bed.
All of this is ironic, of course, because Sutherland and his ilk have accused the LGBTQ+ community of “grooming” children for child sex abuse.
Related:
Conservatives can’t stop calling people “groomer” & it’s hurting abuse victims
The right either thinks pedophiles are lurking everywhere or they are trying to trivialize the term.
While there’s no evidence that Sutherland, age 31, has sexually abused children, police discovered images of child pornography on his computer, according to WTOP.
Police arrested Sutherland last June after surveillance video caught him spray painting the word”groomer” onto the front doors of public libraries in the Maryland towns of New Carrollton and Greenbel. The libraries had hosted events associated with nearby Washington D.C.’s Pride week, including a drag queen story hour. Sutherland admitted to the crimes and faced two counts of malicious destruction of property and multiple hate crimes for his efforts.
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When police took him into custody, Sutherland reportedly agreed to let police search his home. In addition to finding images of child pornography on his computer, something Sutherland admitted to, “Police also found diapers and dolls around his apartment, including a child-sized doll in his bed,” WTOP reported.
He now faces six misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography and a judge ordered him to remain in jail without any bond. Sutherland’s lawyer is appealing the judge’s order, with hopes that Sutherland can be held in home detention at his parents’ home.
After Sutherland’s vandalism, county library spokesperson Nicholas Alexander Brown said, “The library will not waiver in its commitment to maintaining welcoming spaces to LGBTQ+ customers and their allies.” The library system added that it had no plans to change its Pride and LGBTQ+-inclusive events, and added that it hosts such events specifically because of the discrimination the queer community regularly faces.
It’s worth noting that while anti-LGBTQ+ activists regularly accuse queer people, allies, and drag performers of “sexualizing” and “grooming” children for sexual abuse, these activists never seem to criticize rampant child sex abuse in churches, align with organizations that fight child sex trafficking, oppose U.S. laws that allow adults to marry underage children, and publicly criticize guns or other things that actually threaten children’s lives.
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