Conservative pundit defends Lauren Boebert theater groping: Liberals say it’s “empowering”

Despite their belief that even reading a children’s book about a penguin with two dads is too salacious for children, many conservatives are defending Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for allegedly groping a man’s genitals in a theater where children were present last week, including The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles.

Knowles has extreme views on LGBTQ+ people, including saying he believes that “transgenderism must be eradicated” earlier this year. He defended fellow Daily Wire host Candace Owens’ rants about how kids can be turned gay by being in the presence of other gay people. He has claimed that “hypnosis porn” is turning cis men into trans women. He has bragged about how his and other conservatives’ attacks on Pride are making “that symbol toxic, the Pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic.”

Related:

A close read of Michael Knowles’s queer role in ‘House of Shades’

The anti-LGBTQ+ pundit’s character is a manipulative bisexual libertine bent on seducing an innocent student athlete.

He claims that he opposes LGBTQ+ rights specifically because “very radical, very creepy people are trying to indoctrinate children into sexual ideologies” and even said that former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki “was literally crying at the prospect that she might not be allowed to trans the kids,” as if kids can be “transed.”

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So one would think that someone so focused on sexual morality would have an issue with Boebert’s alleged public lewdness. But one would be mistaken; Knowles took to the airwaves to defend her, claiming that her vague apology – which only mentioned vaping at the theater – is enough to forget about the entire incident.

Referring to her as “my friend Lauren Boebert,” Knowles said that he accepted her “apology” because “She’s on our team, and it’s not hypocritical to extend a little bit more grace to the people who are your allies, that’s called politics, first of all.”

“We’ve all done a lot of embarrassing things when we thought we were sitting in the dark, and then there are security cameras that can see in the dark, that can be even more embarrassing,” he continued, saying that Boebert was only “doing things that the liberals exalt as positive goods.”

“Anything that you can accuse Lauren of doing, the liberals say it’s good, it’s empowering, it’s wonderful, it’s expressive, it’s virtuous,” he said. It’s unclear what prominent liberal he is referring to who has advocated that people masturbate in public theaters. “So when they attack her for it, it’s obviously disingenuous, because the only crime according to the libs now is ‘hypocrisy.'”

On Sunday, September 10, the far-right congresswoman and a male companion were escorted by security out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice at the city-owned Buell Theatre in Denver after the venue’s staff received multiple complaints that the couple was vaping, singing loudly, recording the show, and “causing a disturbance.”

While Boebert confirmed that she was asked to leave the performance, her campaign manager initially denied that the congresswoman was vaping inside the theater. But security footage from the venue obtained by 9News clearly shows Boebert exhaling vapor or smoke at one point. A woman seated behind the couple who was reportedly pregnant can also be seen speaking to Boebert. The woman told the Denver Post that when she asked Boebert to stop vaping, she simply replied, “No.” She also claimed that Boebert called her a “sad and miserable person.”

The security footage also shows Boebert and her date, identified as Aspen bar owner Quinn Gallagher, getting handsy with each other during the performance. Gallagher can be seen groping Boebert’s chest, while the congresswoman places her hand in Gallagher’s lap.

Boebert has used her position in Congress to vilify the LGBTQ+ community under the guise of protecting children from “sexualization” and “grooming.” She has described taking children to drag shows as “child abuse.”