this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
767 points (97.5% liked)

politics

19120 readers
2444 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A Republican aide has claimed that LGBTQ+ organisations are training eight-year-old children how to use butt plugs and dildos.

In a recently resurfaced speech, Erin Mazzoni, who reportedly works for the campaign of Franklin, Tennessee Republican mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson, alleged that children are being given sex toys by LGBTQ+ activists.

Mazzoni told a meeting of the Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen earlier this that she’d moved to Tennessee from Bucks County, in Pennsylvania, after apparently discovering that an LGBTQ+ organisation was teaching children how to use sex toys, which, she claimed, caused the community to “fall apart”.

Between sobs, she said: “It started out as Pride coming in, and I thought everything would be OK. It ended with a Rainbow Room where eight to 12-year-old kids were given butt plugs and dildos and trained.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 191 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

We have actual victims speaking up to let us know that the Catholic Church and other Christian communities are abusing children. If LGBT groups are allegedly doing the same, where are the victims' testimonies? Where are the hundreds, if not thousands of victims coming forward with their own stories that can be investigated so we can bring these alleged gay pedophiles to justice?

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 53 points 1 year ago

Because organized religion is so powerful they can get away with mass sexual assault of children among other crimes. Conservatives don't oppose child abuse, they're afraid the "wrong" people Are doing it

[–] vivadanang@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago

IMHO that's the big picture: Conservatism doesn't want people focusing on the overwhelmingly factual and documented abuses by the church and GOP.

This is a list of confirmed GOP sex offenders and their crimes. It's past 1,100 now.

I don't think I need to point out the well documented history of sex offenses in the church, but here's a quick list of recent travesties:

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102621352/how-the-southern-baptist-convention-covered-up-its-widespread-sexual-abuse-scand https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-reveals-widespread-sexual-abuse-and-cover-ups-by-archdiocese-of-baltimorehttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/us/catholic-church-sex-abuse-investigations.html

So please, FOCUS ON THE GAYS! LITTERBOXES! TRANS TRAINERS! Think about anything but the crimes conservatives and religious pedos please please please.

Projection writ large, across our entire society.

[–] papalonian@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm on your side of the argument, but I don't think this is a fair take. We know from history that it's very difficult for victims to come forward in these cases. Your Catholic Church example is a good case of this; the adults we're hearing from were children when the abuse took place. Look at the Me Too incident. Hundreds if not thousands of victims all coming forward years after the fact because they feared the backlash. I genuinely doubt there are groups like the woman described in existence, but if there were, it's understandable that we wouldn't be hearing about it right away.

[–] xanu@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Catholic Church has the power and influence to cover those things up and pressure victims into silence. Hollywood has a huge power imbalance as well. Where in the world does the LGBTQ+ community have such power? The only answer these fascists can give is "the Jews".

If there was large scale abuse going on in the LGBTQ+ community, it would have been found out for sure; especially considering how many hateful zealots spend their retirement actively hunting the imaginary abuse. (I'm also not saying there's no abuse because well, humans suck. just that it isn't large scale, organized, and actively defended like churches and corporate hierarchies)

[–] Kimano@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean this is assuming that children are rationally considering the amount of power an abuser has over their lives, which is clearly not the case. To a kid, simply being an adult makes them seem powerful.

[–] dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

And yet kids and adults come forward all the time. There would be somebody if the abuse is that wide spread.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 8 points 1 year ago

The power of the church enables them to influence more than just the kids of course. Also if adults show reverence to priests you bet the kids pick up on that. And also the parents often side with the priest over the kid anyway if the kid actually ever says anything.

Bottom line: the claims of sexual abuse by "tHe gAyS" are unsubstantiated.

Studies have shown that abusers are not more likely to be LGBTQ than straight.

In fact it is statistically the opposite to a significant degree.

So why the claims then?

First, modern right wing Christianity is deeply biased to be anti-gay already and so it is no wonder preachers are dead wrong and spreading bullshit myths as well as classing all LGBTQ people as literally "minions ot Satan"

Second, regressives (right wingers) hate LGBTQ people (because they are different and also because of religion). Spreading damaging myths is an attempt to change culture to be in favor of persecuting and attempting to eradicate LGBTQ people -- or whoever else is in the "out group" to be eradicated.

[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

If a lone person with political motives to damage the Catholic Church's reputation alleged they were abusing children, I'd be demanding the same evidence of victims' testimonies. No one should be believing allegations of sexual assault without evidence, of which victim testimonies are key. Same with the Me Too movement. I'm a therapist and not at all unsympathetic to how difficult it is for victims of sexual assault to go public with their stories, but from a societal perspective, we should all be skeptical of allegations made without evidence. Is it possible these LGBT groups are abusing kids and we won't find out until 15-20+ years from now, when those kids decide to come forward with their stories? Sure. But until then, accusations with clear political motivation should be disregarded, and that's true whether you're talking about LGBT groups or the LDS Church.