We’ve been here before: child molesters & the political right

This was the era of Anita Bryant’s crusade against lesbians and gays. “As a mother,” Bryant said, “I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.” This was the predominant belief; this notion that gays and lesbians need to “recruit” people to grow in numbers, and therefore are grooming children. It was very effective, as it tapped into primal fears that one’s own sons and daughters could be in peril from a menace that the parents could not legally control. And yes, the notion of “recruiting” is itself a quaint euphemism for child molestation. The assumption is that the only way one becomes gay is if they end up in a homosexual relationship, not due to any sort of natural human variance. Groups like the Family Research Council still push these beliefs today, saying “Male homosexuals commit a disproportionate number of child sex abuse cases.”

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