THE RISE OF NEO-HOMOPHOBIA By Alex Morash
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nti-LGBTQ hate groups have been planning a comeback for years –– they succeeded. From their new “groomer” language, COVID conspiracies, to death threats, they are back in full force across the country and here in Rhode Island. Jeffrey Marsh makes TikTok videos about Queer and Trans love and acceptance for young people. Their videos are kind and sweet, yet scrolling one morning, this writer came upon a video where Marsh discussed the reactions to their work. In one reaction video, a woman quietly watches Marsh while she loads a gun. Her video’s caption read “no mercy for child groomers and pedos.” The hate and death threats Marsh has faced are not new for LGBTQ people, but what is new is how sophisticated targeting Queer and Trans people has become. One of the newest and loudest bullhorns of the far-right is a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok. This account specializes in reposting videos and social media made by Queer and Trans people – especially out teachers – and claiming the content creators are grooming and molesting children. It is common for these creators to be doxxed, get death threats, and some have even
been fired from their teaching jobs. Libs of TikTok is part of a rightwing pipeline to target Queer and Trans people. The account picks victims as a signal to their base
peoples in education –– the first time a Don’t Say Gay bill was signed into law in the United States in over 20 years. Alabama quickly followed in passing similar legislation. There are now similar bills in at least 20 states, including Rhode Island, along with bills to curb the rights of transgender students. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s spokesperson claimed opponents of Don’t Say Gay bills are “groomers” or the supporters of “groomers.” Claims of the sexualization of school curriculum has become a common antiLGBTQ dogwhistle. Yet, the term groomer is a recent phenomenon and its use comes after the conspiracy movement Q-Anon gained popularity with claims that 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton led a child molestation ring out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor, also known as PizzaGate. The conspiracy galvanized extremists, leading to a gunman invading the establishment. This writer spoke to the waitstaff of the pizza parlor in question in December of 2016. The staff explained how the conspiracy theorists used pictures of the staff’s young children they found on social media and distributed them claiming
“The hate and death threats Marsh has faced are not new for LGBTQ people, but what is new is how sophisticated targeting Queer and Trans people has become.”
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June 2022
to attack assigned targets. What happened to Marsh is an example of this. Libs of TikTok targeted Marsh multiple times. After Libs of TikTok targeted Marsh, Tucker Carlson went after Marsh on Fox News. Marsh responded to everything faced by them with a simple request: “Please humanize us.” This spring, Florida passed legislation to ban discussion of LGBTQ
