#NotADragQueen: Every Accusation a Confession
Projection, groomer panic, and protection for pedophiles
Recently, I’ve been compiling a list. This isn’t a fun list, like a “Places I Want to See Before I Die” or “Best Coffee Shops Around Arizona” or even an “Amazing Potential Band Names” type of list.
I mean, I wish it was that kind of list. But it’s definitely not.
Instead, it’s a list of incidents of child sexual abuse as perpetrated by those who proclaim themselves to be good, upright people of faith… and that happen to be people that like to call LGBTQ folks “groomers” and “pedos.”
There shouldn’t be a need to document these horrific cases of abuse. My list shouldn’t be this long, and this easy to populate.
Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, right wing politicians and pundits have decided to move on from terrifying low-information voters with news of “teh CaRaVaNs” and instead are fomenting a modern-day version of the Lavender Scare.
The hypocrisy of this phenomenon is stunning and dangerous. It’s also not new.
You probably didn’t learn about it in school, but on today’s date in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450. This policy was somewhat similar to McCarthy’s Red Scare.
But instead of hunting alleged “commies,” the Lavender Scare codified the investigation, interrogation, and systematic removal of LGBTQ people from the federal government, all under the guise of protecting national security.
The Lavender Scare was, in part, a backlash against the increasing visibility of the LGBTQ community at the time. Of course, political leaders used it to full advantage, presenting the seeking out of queer people in government into a moral crusade for red-blooded Americans. The policy melded political aims with moral outrage, stirring the gullible into a self-righteous frenzy.
It was a convenient and effective way to whip up the masses against a common enemy… all in the name of patriotism. And the result? Widespread persecution, lost jobs, missed opportunities, fear, and violence.
(Of course, the persecution of LGBTQ people is also a playbook taken straight from Nazi Germany and the fascist laws that predated Hitler’s rise.)
Does any of this sounds familiar? It should. It’s happening again today, just under a different name.
In recent years — as LGBTQ people have gained rights, visibility, and popular acceptance — the religious right and their BFFs, right wing politicians and pundits, have waged war.
And in this re-imagining of the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s, the religious right is all in. Except today their efforts take the form of “Groomer Panic,” which boils down to calling anyone who’s queer, trans, nonbinary, an ally, or a liberal a “pedophile groomer.”
It’s all made possible by the strategic use of mis- and disinformation. And it’s been an effective tool, as evidenced by the massive wave of anti-trans, anti-drag, and anti-LGBTQ laws that have swept the nation in the last few years: In 2023 alone, more than 415 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state governments across the U.S., including right here in Arizona.
But that’s not all. Despite the fact that 70% of parents oppose book banning, we’ve seen record numbers of bans and cases of book removals, with a focus on books about LGBTQ issues, gender equality, gender identity and, of course, race. Book bans in AZ public schools and libraries not only impact students, but also have a chilling effect on educators and schools.
We’ve seen the GOP push harmful laws targeting trans folks, with a special target on trans youth. Such bills seem designed specifically to cause harm to an already marginalized population that experiences violence, discrimination, and abuse at much higher rates.
And we’ve seen right-wing politicians introduce a slew of anti-drag laws targeting performers’ free speech. Many are so vaguely written that they could even preclude the showing of movies such as Mulan or the performance of Shakespeare in any venue where a minor is present.
Overall, these bad-faith bills are red meat thrown to the right-wing base, and foment violence by advancing and reinforcing “groomer panic.”
In light of the proliferation of rhetoric and legislation targeting the LGBTQ community, it’s easy to see how “low information voters,” those who consume right-wing media, and those who simply don’t pay attention, can be manipulated. After all, this is a concerted effort to manipulate right-wing voters and take homophobic, transphobic “groomer panic” mainstream.
Take, for example, the moral panic over Florida’s recent “Don’t Say Gay” law. Gov Ron DeSantis’s press secretary described the bill as “the Anti-Grooming Bill” and tweeted that if you don’t support the bill, “you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.”
The religious and political right have co-opted a term that describes the actions a pedophile takes to make a child vulnerable to sexual abuse, and are using it as a weapon against members of the LGBTQ community and their allies. The right also uses the term to imply that liberals are pedophiles and pedophile enablers/advocates.
With all the accusations of pedophilia floating around, a casual observer would think that the vast, vast majority of child sexual abuse (CSA) is committed by queer people, trans people, or drag queens. Indeed, the “grooming” characterization has led to drag performances and performers being targeted by threats, protests, and violent incidents around the country.
Given the common use of the the terms “groomer” and “pedophile” to demonize LGBTQ folks and, indeed, anyone who doesn’t buy into the GOP party line, a reality check is in order.
Who, in fact, is responsible for more cases of CSA? Drag queens? Trans people? Liberals? Or those who profess to be upstanding people of faith? The religious right? MAGATs?
You might be amazed at how much work has been done trying to figure this out. Take, for instance, this very (very) long list of Republican sex offenders, stretching back decades and ending in the aughts.
Or this list, currently on PART 42, of Republican sexual abusers.
Or this list of right wing sexual predators, which looks to be updated about every five minutes and contains thousands of CSA incidents.
And then there’s the list of religious right groomers/CSA cases that I started the other day. It took me less than an hour of minimal research to compile over 130 incidents.
It’s not fun reading, but that’s not the point. The point is that, lo and behold, there doesn’t appear to be a drag queen among these incidents. Certainly none took place at drag queen story time event.
But wow, did a lot of CSA incidents ever appear to take place at a church… or to be perpetrated or covered up by a religious leader or “person of faith.” Whether it’s the Southern Baptists or the Mormons or (duh) the Catholic Church, CSA by those seemingly in charge of religious life are all too common.
There’s yet another facet to this dangerous and tragic mess: the judicial system.
Over and over, we see examples of the courts protecting the abusers. It happened just the other day here in Arizona, when the AZ Supreme Court upheld clergy privilege yet again.
Specifically, the court upheld a state law that exempts religious officials from reporting child sexual abuse — as long as they learn about the crime in a confessional setting.
The case was in response to a suit filed by CSA victims against the LDS church, two LDS bishops, and other church members who refused to report known abuse by LDS church member Paul Adams. Adams raped his daughters — one of whom was six months old when the abuse started — for at least seven years and the LDS church knew about it the whole time yet did nothing to stop it.
How is this possible? How could anyone stand back and let this happen?
Adams revealed the abuse to his bishop, John Herron, when one daughter was five years old. The bishop, a physician, decided to follow church policy. This involved calling a church help line, which told him to keep the abuse under wraps. Herron complied, declined to notify law enforcement, and the abuse continued. For years.
Adams later confessed to another LDS bishop, who also chose to keep the abuse secret. Adams continued raping his daughters, even posting videos of the abuse to the internet. He was eventually arrested in 2017 with no help from the church.
During an investigation of the case, the press uncovered thousands of sealed records from another (unrelated) CSA lawsuit against the LDS church. The documents show that the “help line” is simply part of a system that church leaders use to deflect abuse accusations in order to protect the church, leaving victims in horrible situations.
One obvious solution? Requiring clergy to follow the same CSA mandated reporting rules as so many other professions.
That was the hope of the Adams children when they filed the lawsuit. Seems reasonable to protect the children, rather than the abusers, right?
But when a Cochise County judge ordered that the LDS bishops had to testify in the case, the LDS church was (finally) spurred to DO SOMETHING. Of course, that something was to file a special action to protect the bishops from testifying. The AZ Supreme Court then ruled that, nope, the church didn’t have to report the abuse.
In an (eight-page, non-published) opinion, the court agreed that the clergy privilege belongs to the penitent, not the church. Despite the fact that Adams publicly bragged about his abusive actions — i.e. posting the abuse online — the church could still claim privilege. When the courts protect the abuser, no one is protecting the children.
This all boils down to one thing: hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy of the churches, who allow known abusers to operate for years, moving them from place to place and keeping their actions secret, in order to protect the public image of the church.
Hypocrisy among the religious leaders who exploit their positions of authority and power to abuse and, yes, groom children.
Hypocrisy of the religious right that accuses LGBTQ, trans and nonbinary people, drag queens, and liberals of being pedophile groomers.
Hypocrisy of GOP elected officials and pundits who jump on the disinformation bandwagon to manipulate and rile their base.
And it makes us ask: Who’s really grooming who?
Given report after report of CSA committed by church leaders, people of faith, GOP operatives, and members of the religious right, it’s extremely difficult not to see every accusation as a confession.
We’ll be exploring this issue in depth over the next two months in our speaker series: “Who’s Grooming Who? Calling Out Religious Hypocrisy”. Every Friday at noon (PST), we’ll welcome a speaker to discuss different aspects of “groomer panic”:
May 5: Dr. Caroline Matas: How the Evangelical Family Structure Facilitates Abuse a’la the Duggars
May 12: Media Matters’ Ari Drennen: Right-Wing Media and Anti-Trans Panic
May 19: Author R.L. Stollar: The Right’s Dangerous Resurrection of Malicious Child Predator Myths
May 26: Stop Abuse Campaign’s Melanie Blow: Ending Abuse in the Church
June 2: Scholar Chrissy Stroop: Why Abuse Scandals Are So Common in Conservative Christian Institutions
June 9: Rabbi Mike Harvey: Author of “Let’s Talk: A Rabbi Speaks to Christians” on Religious Hypocrisy
June 16: Lynn Cadigan, Attorney for the Adams children in the Bisbee/LDS abuse case