If you thought all the recent talk about LGBTQ+ people being "groomers," a dog-whistle for "pedophile," was just a bunch of fringe rhetoric, think again.
Former Republican President Donald Trump signaled in a speech yesterday that he is planning to announce his third presidential run for 2024.
And among the highlights of his speech was taking a page out of Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' book and calling LGBTQ+ people "sickos" who are "pushing sexual content on kindergartens." Which, for the record, is not happening.
It seems Trump is adopting the virulent anti-LGBTQ bigotry and fear-mongering that has been the all-consuming obsession of the Republican Party in recent years and making it the official Party platform--not that anyone should be surprised.
During the speech, Trump discussed LGBTQ+ people in tandem with "the sexualization of children," and called for the full force of the state to be used to stop this non-existent crime wave from happening.
And then, of course, he launched into the right's favorite pastime, transphobia. See his speech below, but be warned it may be disturbing to some viewers.
In his speech, Trump claimed:
"A society that cannot protect its children is a society that will not be able to protect anybody."
"This is a hallmark of cultural and social decay against which we must fight back."
He then went on to talk at length about healthcare treatments for trans people he admitted himself he knows nothing about.
“The sickos who are pushing sexual content in kindergartens or providing puberty blockers to young children who have no idea what a puberty blocker is – neither do I, by the way... are not just engaged in acts of depravity in many cases they are breaking the law and they should be held fully accountable."
Puberty blockers are not given to young children and are only prescribed once a patient has actually begun puberty and after extensive psychological counseling. Their effects are fully reversible.
Anti-LGBTQ and especially anti-trans disinformation campaigns and accusations of pedophilia leveled at LGBTQ people and allies have become cornerstones of the Republican Party since Trump left office, and Trump has clearly gotten the memo.
After doing a bit of disinfo himself, Trump called for those facilitating healthcare for trans patients to be prosecuted for doing so.
“Federal, state, and local government should aggressively enforce existing statutes to stop the perverted sexualization of minor children. You have the statutes.”
On Twitter, many people found Trump's speech abhorrent.
Recent trends indicate the right's sustained campaigns against LGBTQ people are succeeding in moving certain cohorts of the left toward the far-right.
Trump isn't good at much, but if there's one thing he has a talent for it's knowing which political trends to jump on.
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