I am alarmed by the out-of-control wildfires of conspiracy theories about child abuse and pedophilia. Many of the vile fabricated stories are flames fanned by the politically driven conspiracy movement QAnon. Epitomized by prominent member and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric —
she recently declared,
Other Republicans have added fuel to the fire with reckless accusations that Democratic colleagues who support trans and gay rights are gaining kids' trust to set them up to be abused, what’s known as sexual grooming. And while Congresswoman Greene is a documented fire starter, the embers of her nasty unproven attacks have traveled far and wide on the high winds of character assassination.
In an email fundraising campaign, Michigan Republican state senator Lana Theis
accused
It angers me that these politically motivated false charges of child abuse and pedophilia are tossed about casually when there are actual incidents of child sexual abuse that should command our attention. A couple of recent local cases are a reminder of how real child victims have suffered. Two weeks ago, the Boston School Committee
voted to shut down the Mission Hill School
because of documented abuse of children as young as five. Boston Public School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius
called for the school’s closing,
citing a
nearly 200-page report
Patrick Rose cried in the courtroom
last month
It burns me to hear the very real horror of child sexual abuse is covered up even as made-up cases are used as a political weapon. It needs to stop now.