Conservatives Are Ludicrously Accusing GLSEN of ‘Grooming’ Kids

As conservatives continue their attacks on LGBTQ+ people and their supporters during Pride Month, GLSEN is the next target for right-wing conservatives after they attacked Target and the company’s associates.

Target announced it was removing different Pride merchandise from its stores after conservatives filmed themselves attacking Pride displays and ranting about the items. The conservative movement has taken its frustrations out on Target for alleged “grooming” of children based on “woke” beliefs.

Even Target partner GLSEN has been attacked by conservative outlets like Fox News.

As a nonprofit organization, GLSEN commits to ending anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice and harassment in K-12 education. The group has been working with Target for many years. Since their decades-long relationship began, Target has donated over $2 million to the nonprofit. However, conservatives see this relationship as supporting child “grooming.”

According to Fox News, GLSEN was pushing “gender ideology” in all classes, conflating its guidance on how educators can accommodate trans and nonbinary students in math classes with gender ideology.

Fox News Digital also attacked GLSEN and reported that the nonprofit advises schools not to disclose their students’ gender identities to their parents.

As a result of its support of LGBTQ+ authors and books, GLSEN has also been accused of promoting “sexually explicit” books to children. All of these claims are false.

GLSEN employees have received threatening and hateful messages due to this media assault.

According to GLSEN’s executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, these attacks are familiar.

“Unfortunately, these vicious attacks from right-wing extremists and media are nothing new. We’ve seen this playbook before — they create blatantly false narratives knowing that it will fire up their base, unleashing hate and violence,” they told The Advocate in a statement.

“Their goal is to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation, silence our allies, and create an environment of fear and disgust around our community. We know that hate speech leads to hate crimes, and as our opposition gets more desperate, we must rise up and fight to protect our most vulnerable communities,” they said.

“We won’t stay silent,” Willingham-Jaggers added.