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Gays Against Groomers (GAG) is a far-right anti-LGBTQ organization that started as a Twitter account created by Jaimee Michell known for posting anti-trans rhetoric. The collective has harassed school board meetings and hospitals, attended and held anti-LGBTQ rallies alongside far-right organizations, and has been banned from multiple platforms for hate speech. They are known for their use of the slur "groomer" to portray their critics and parents and supporters of LGBTQ youth as pedophiles and have been compared to Libs of TikTok. The organization refers to transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people as "infiltrators" and opposes gender-affirming care and Drag Queen Story Hour Events. It is widely promoted by right-wing media such as One America News Network (OANN) and Fox News. GAG has been accused of fueling stochastic terrorism, the public condemnation of a group that leads to violent acts against the group.

Founding and funding

GAG was created by Jaimee Michell on June 6, 2022, in Milwaukee. Before creating GAG, Michell was a creative designer at a right-wing marketing company, Arsenal Media and her personal Twitter history included content similar to that published on GAG: accusations of people being "pedos" and "groomers" and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the 2020 election. White Rose AFA reported that Michell has a lengthy history of promoting far-right content across multiple platforms. On YouTube, she went by @youbegood, which has shared racist and Islamaphobic sentiments. Michell blamed such posts on her ex and deactivated the account shortly after White Rose AFA posted screenshots of her comment history, but has not named the ex. One comment included a link to her website, where she featured examples of her work for U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn, Benny Johnson of Turning Point USA, and other conservatives. Michell has said that she opposes transgender equality so that straight people will not target gay people and that it is more difficult to come out as conservative than gay.

Michell has denied that anyone is funding the account and claims the organization is a non-profit, though its application has not been approved. In September 2022, the group filed as a corporation. Imara Jones hypothesized that the heritage foundation was funding them, noting they have a budget of close to a million dollars and stating it could not have come organically from the community.

Activities

In September 2022, GAG launched a partner coalition called Trans Against Groomers.

Appearances in conservative and far-right media

GAG's Twitter account frequently interacts with the anti-LGBT account Libs of TikTok.

In August in an interview with the far-right news channel One America News Network, Michell compared gender-affirming care to Joseph Mengele, a nazi doctor notorious for his experimentation on Auschwitz prisoners. The Nazis destroyed Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexology, which pioneered the scientific understanding of LGBTQ identities.

On November 8, Michele blamed the Colorado Spring club shooting on gender-affirming care, where a gunman killed five people, including two trans people, and injured over a dozen more. Appearing on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, Michell stated GAG "saw this coming from a mile away" and "the tragedy that happened in Colorado Springs the other night, it was expected and predictable, I don’t think gonna stop until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children". Carlson agreed and said, "I think you're exactly right". Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Orlando nightclub shooting and press secretary of the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Florida wrote "here's Gays Against Groomers founder on Fox with a crystal clear threat: "The mass murders will continue until you do as you're told". GAG later tweeted "If you want to see gay rights and LGBT people continue to be attacked, just keep sexualizing, indoctrinating and mutilating kids, leave the kids alone and we'll all be left alone".

In November 2022, Tulsi Gabbard tweeted that "woke doctors" should be imprisoned for "mutilating children's bodies and minds". The tweet was featured in an episode of InfoWars' War Room, where Michell endorsed Gabbard's statement and called for gender-affirming care doctors to forcibly receive the same procedures, saying they would "make Josef Mengele blush."

The Dallas Express, part of a network of right-wing propaganda sites run by Metric Media, ran an ad on Facebook and Instagram promoting its article discussing GAG and their ban from Venmo and PayPal. The far-right organization Red, White, & Blueprint's co-owner Carlos Zapata has retweeted and endorsed content from GAG. David Leatherman, an employee at Arsenal Media, has promoted GAG.

Protests and rallies

In September, in response to a California school district's decision to paint Progress Pride murals on all school buildings and the administration office, GAG called for a mass protest at their school board meeting.

On September 3, a coalition of far-right groups including GAG, Babies Lives Matter, the Proud Boys, LEXIT, the Palmdale Freedom Coalition, and White Lives Matter planned a QAnon themed "Save the children" rally. The marchers were met by anti-fascists and were joined by members of QueerX, who had been separately protesting city council member Mitch O'Farrell for displacing unhoused communities after Farrell and his supporters left early.

In September, the Miami-Dade School Board decided against declaring October LGBTQ+ History Month. GAG had targeted the school and drove trucks around the city claiming the district teaches "radical gender ideology". Members of the Proud Boys harassed people with hateful rhetoric outside the school board's headquarters.

On December 3, a group of far-right individuals including GAG, Moms for Liberty, and Florida Fathers for Freedom organized and hosted a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. Jordan Toste, the southeast regional leader of GAG, was one of the scheduled speakers. Approximately 20 Proud Boys were also present and flashed white power symbols during the protest. The event was promoted by OANN, Breitbart, and the Goyim Defense League. A counter rally of approximately 50 people was hosted including youth organizers and elected officials, who blamed such rallies on Governor Ron DeSantis' anti-LGBTQ politics and rhetoric. An organizer of the rally was recorded to have aggressively taunted high school students and attempted to intimidate a student organizer of the protest.

Harassment

In June 2022, GAG retweeted footage of a drag queen that was doctored to claim that they had exposed themself to children. GAG wrote, "If gay rights do get rolled back, it will only be because of things like this."

In September, GAG was involved in harassing the Boston Children's Hospital, which received harassment and bomb threats over their provision of gender-affirming care to minors. GAG fundraised for the harassment. Michell suggested that Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz had fabricated the bomb threats.

On October 24, a Wauwatosa school board meeting was infiltrated by Michell, speaking for GAG, and the right-wing group Moms for Liberty, neither of which are based in Wauwatosa. They protested the district's new human growth and development curriculum which had been approved months ago, had a 70% approval rating in the district, and was not on the agenda. Michell and Moms for Liberty accused attendees of being groomers, not actually being gay, and wanting to show explicit pictures to children, at one point bringing a 10-year-old student to tears. Both groups had advertised their plan to attend for days beforehand. Michell implied she planned to attend future board meetings and described the curriculum as "child abuse" and "grooming". Parents spoke out against the inclusion of these outside extremist groups.

On November 17, a restaurant in San Luis Obispo received threats over advertising a 21+ drag brunch with the caption "Bring the family!" by mistake. Other establishments in the city had also received threats from the same person over drag events, including those appropriate for all ages. The message had said they chatting with one of the founders of GAG and they'd agreed to assist in advertising the event.

On December 19 in New York City, two members of GAG associated with the Guardians of Divinity, Erica Sanchez and D'Anna Morgan, taunted and harassed openly gay City Council member Erik Bottcher, first at his office then at his home. The two vandalized his office and later broke into the lobby of Boettcher's apartment and left anti-gay slurs graffitied on his sidewalk. Morgan and other members of the Guardians of divinity were also present at a protest against a Drag Story Hour event in Jackson heights along Proud Boys and members of the neo-nazi Goyim Defense League.

In December, GAG also retweeted footage of Rep. Katie Porter which had been doctored to claim she supported pedophilia. Porter had spoken out against how Twitter had been used to falsely label people as pedophiles.

Legislation

On August 19, 2022, Michell told OANN that they are working toward a federal ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

In October, GAG endorsed policies in Florida that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and only allow "counselling" as a treatment.

In January 2023, Robert Wallace, head of the Arizona chapter of GAG, voiced his support for Arizona Senate Bill 1001, which would prohibit teachers and school officials from using students' pronouns unless they have written permission from parents and allow school employees to ignore them for "religious and moral convictions".

The same month, Ryan Woods, a drag artist also known as Lady MAGA USA, represented GAG in support of a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in Utah, saying children were being groomed and referring to Chloe Cole, who also spoke in favor of the bill.

Reception

Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard, was the first to reveal that Michell was behind the account and described GAG as "a conservative funded propaganda account to push the groomer libel". GAG used Caraballo's name as a discount code to sell anti-trans merchandise. Them.us described it as a "Great Value version of the notoriously toxic Libs of Tiktok". GAG has been accused of fueling stochastic terrorism, the public condemnation of a group that leads to violent acts against the group.

A spokesperson from GLAAD stated "they are coming from a place of anti-LGBT animus and bigotry" and that they characterize "LGBTQ+ people as pedophiles falsely and maliciously with the absolutely clear intent of driving fear". The Anti-Defamation League described them as "an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist coalition" and stated "while GAG claims that they cannot be anti-gay or anti-lesbian as they themselves identify as gay or lesbian, ADL’s definition of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism includes any person who pushes false claims and conspiracy theories about all or parts of the LGBTQ+ community, regardless of how they personally identify".

In November, an unidentified group or individual put up door hangers attacking the St. Charles Public Library and School District 303 for their social-emotional learning program. The hangers said schools and libraries are "eroding parental and constituional rights by poromoting the 'sexualization' and 'gender dysphoria' in children as young as preschool, yet are exempt from the prosecution!" The hangers listed resources for people including GAG and MassResistance, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

Social media platforms

Twitter has suspended the account four times, some of which were supposed to be permanent, but kept reinstating it. Before Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the website's rules prohibited the use of "groomer" as an insult based on gender identity or expression under their hate speech policy. GAG responded by using code terms such as "broomer" and "gr__mer" and changing its screen name to "Gays Against Grewmers". Some hypothesized that someone at Twitter was manually and repeatedly overriding the suspensions.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, GAG reverted to its old name, tweeted "OK GROOMER", and purchased a verified badge. In October 2022, the account directly thanked Musk for helping them further their agenda. Before Musk's purchase, tweets using hate terms averaged at most 84 per hour over a week. After the purchase, users tweeted hate speech 4,778 times from midnight to noon. A report from the Human Rights Campaign found that the GAG Twitter account had seen an increase of nearly 300% in their use of the slur "groomer" when comparing the two months before and after Musk's purchase.

Venmo, PayPal, and Google have banned the group from raising funds on their platforms due to their policies prohibiting hate speech. As a result, GAG began to use the fundraising platform Donorbox.

In October 2022, Parler accidentally leaked the emails of their "gold-badged" users, which included GAG.

References

1. ^ Goforth, Claire (June 29, 2022). "Is 'Gays against Groomers' the new Libs of TikTok?". Daily dot. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
2. ^ Wiggins, Christopher (December 16, 2022). "Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Way Up on Twitter Since Elon Musk's Takeover: Study". The Advocate. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
3. ^ Gingerich, Mia (September 26, 2022). "Anti-LGBTQ extremists banned by PayPal are turning to Donorbox to finance their harassment campaigns". Media Matters for America. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
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