Wingnut: Police Raided Stonewall to Save Trans Kid From Sexual Abuse

A leader of a hate group has whipped up a strange conspiracy theory on the origins of the Stonewall riots.

Diane Gramley, who helms the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association, said police were "trying to rescue a young boy who identified as transgender" when they raided the gay bar June 28, 1969.

"He was being used sexually and the police were trying to rescue him," continued Gramley, who made the far-fetched remarks on the Stand in the Gap radio show from the American Pastors Network, reports Right Wing Watch.

In real life, the police raid on the Stonewall Inn was part of the ongoing persecution of New York City's LGBTQ population at the hands of the New York Police Department. Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill (finally) apologized for the abuse earlier this month.

"The actions taken by the N.Y.P.D. were wrong, plain and simple," said O'Neill. "The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize."

The Stonewall riots were in response to the raids -- and trans people, rather than being "saved" by law enforcement, were the ones leading the charge against them. The uprising of New York's queer community against police brutality is widely credited as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement and the reason World Pride will take place there on Stonewall's 50th anniversary.

However, Gramley, in her radio interview, spread the harmful mistruth that Pride is a "menace" and its purpose is "to indoctrinate [children] and [LGBTQ people] are seeking to promote their deviant sexual behavior."

"It's very much a menace to Americans because they use these Pride events to desensitize us to the dangers of their lifestyle, to the physical, psychological dangers of their lifestyle and the whole purpose is to desensitize us," said Gramley. "So it's a menace that doesn't portray itself as a menace. So we have be very wary of situations like that."

Perhaps Gramley should reference Taylor Swift's new single, "You Need to Calm Down."