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Far-right Christian actor Kevin Sorbo is under fire for his new children's book The Test of Lionhood for what many feel is blatant anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Sorbo has been trafficking in anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment for years, including using what has by now become standard right-wing anti-trans boilerplate in the promotion of The Test of Lionhood.
But when Joe Jervis, writer of the long-running LGBTQ+ blog "Joe My God" called him out for it, Sorbo clapped back with an impassioned defense of his book in which he of course claimed he's being persecuted by "the left."
Yet another example of the left doing whatever it takes to score clicks while bashing Christian conservatives. This guy has no clue what he's talking about, and and only furthers narrative that most journalists are a joke. \n\nMy book, The Test of Lionhood, is about a lion cub who\u2026— Kevin Sorbo (@Kevin Sorbo) 1695758816
Citing Jervis' blog post, Sorbo tweeted:
"Yet another example of the left doing whatever it takes to score clicks while bashing Christian conservatives. This guy has no clue what he's talking about, and and only furthers narrative that most journalists are a joke."
"My book, The Test of Lionhood, is about a lion cub who learns what it means to be courageous and BRAVE while on a dangerous adventure to save his sister cub. I guess books that don't include LGBTQ+ characters are automatically 'Anti-LGBTQ.'"
That's actually not at all what Jervis criticized in his post, which is, of course, readily available at the very link Sorbo included in his tweet.
Instead, Jervis criticized the transparent "traditional gender" rhetoric and open transphobia Sorbo used to promo his book in an interview with The Christian Post, titled "Kevin Sorbo Writes New Children’s Book To Expose Dangers of ‘Woke Gender Confusion,'" no less, in which Sorbo said:
“The danger is trying to make [boys and girls] the same. We’re not the same. It’s like these transgenders going in and racing against women in sports now, boxing matches. It’s just crazy to me.”
"These transgenders" is a nice touch. Definitely no anti-LGBTQ+ vitriol there, any more than there would be anti-Christian vitriol shown if we were to refer to Sorbo as, say, "bloviating Jesus freak Kevin Sorbo." They're just words, right? Sorbo surely wouldn't mind.
Sorbo's book and his response to the criticism haven't gone over well with a lot of people on social media, of course.
Actor Kevin Sorbo released an anti-trans children\u2019s book.\n\nTo publicize it, he's lashing out against anyone who says it's an anti-trans children\u2019s book.\n\nhttps://t.co/BFt4PwH9jr— Hemant Mehta (@Hemant Mehta) 1695820541
@hemantmehta "Sorbo said it's dangerous to teach children that men and women can swap sexes at will or that children can be whichever gender they choose." Another example of conservatives complaining about people doing things that nobody is actually doing.— Ed Tuthill - also at @bishop6@mastodon.online (@Ed Tuthill - also at @bishop6@mastodon.online) 1695821162
@ksorbs Bro, you're about as Christian as you are an actor...— Beta Syndicate Magazine (@Beta Syndicate Magazine) 1695783842
@hemantmehta This book is basically telling girls that they are to be "weak" so the "strong" boys can rescue them. And that men are to rescue and control women.\nThis is indoctrination in the worst form and NOT Christian.\nJesus relied on women in his ministry for consultation and ideas.— Texas Gweilo (@Texas Gweilo) 1695843559
@ksorbs Well please tell us, does it, or does it not, have a few pages reserved at the end, for Scripture and what the Bible says about the gender roles God has designed for men and women?— KellyDeanAllen (This \ud83c\udfb8 Kills Fascists) (@KellyDeanAllen (This \ud83c\udfb8 Kills Fascists)) 1695759369
Kevin Sorbo has \u201cwritten\u201d a book to indoctrinate children against the \u201cwoke concept\u201d that you can change your identity & how you present yourself.\n\nYes, because nothing says \u201cYour characteristics are immutable quite like a lion presenting as a human lumberjack on two feet.— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@Mrs. Betty Bowers) 1695759249
@ksorbs Quit manufacturing sympathy for your crappy book Kev.— Inflight Hypersonic Missile Technician (@Inflight Hypersonic Missile Technician) 1695767431
@ksorbs Did that sister cub come from\nThe two gay lions on Noah\u2019s ark ?— Wendalyn Isabel (@Wendalyn Isabel) 1695759350
The stated mission of Sorbo's publisher, Brave Books, is to protect children from "harmful progressive influences," which it does by publishing books by the likes of Chaya Raichik, the activist behind the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ social media platform Libs of TikTok and who has been instrumental in promoting the Republican conspiracy theory that all LGBTQ+ are "groomers" and pedophiles.
Can't imagine why people would ever get the impression that Sorbo is anti-LGBTQ+. That Bible verse about being "known by the company you keep"... how's that go, again?