Any Republican leader who has the nerve to offer up hollow “prayers” after the Colorado Springs shooting after helping to mainstream homophobia is shameless.
Throughout her career, Boebart has repeatedly expressed her disdain for the LGBTQ community. In recent months, she has baselessly accused drag queens, trans people and LGBTQ-allied teachers of “grooming” young children. She’s compared gender-affirming medical care to mutilation, vilified trans athletes and claimed that LGBTQ characters shouldn’t be in TV shows that kids might watch. Boebert also suggested that there should be an age limit on when people can come out or transition, similar to the age restrictions on alcohol and tobacco products. In August, she even warned drag queens to “stay away from the children in Colorado’s Third District” in response to a flyer advertising Drag Queen Story Hour at a local library.
urthermore, she has amplified the Twitter account Libs of TikTok, perhaps one of the largest purveyors of anti-LGBTQ disinformation and rhetoric. Run by Chaya Raichik, Libs of TikTok has targeted LGBTQ people, drag events and Pride celebrations across the country.
Raichik’s account has also gone after doctors and hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to trans kids. A Washington Post report showed how the account has been blamed for multiple children’s hospitals across the country receiving threats, including one that was the target of a bomb threat.
To make matters worse, Libs of TikTok recently targeted another drag event in Colorado just hours after news of the Colorado Springs shooting broke, once again using children to stoke unwarranted fear and hostility.
In addition to Boebert and Libs of TikTok, political leaders like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Fox News anchors like Tucker Carlson; as well as conservative activists like Matt Walsh and Christopher Rufo, among others, have repeatedly attacked drag queens and other queer and trans people, spreading lie after lie and conspiracy after conspiracy.