#jaimee michell

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Colorado officials, including the state’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, who is gay, are countering a claim by Gays Against Groomers, an extremist group, that Polis supports their mission. The group, known for spreading harmful disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people, falsely claimed on social media that the governor had publicly recognized their work to “protect children” from the so-called “grooming” they accuse LGBTQ+ people of perpetrating.

On Monday evening, Gays Against Groomers posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Gays Against Groomers would like to thank Colorado Governor @jaredpolis for his public recognition for our hard work in protecting children across the state. It means so much to us. We are just getting started!” Accompanying the post was an image of what appeared to be an official state document bearing the Colorado seal and claiming that Polis had flown a flag over the Capitol in their honor. The document read, “This accompanying Colorado State Flag was flown at the Colorado State Capitol Building on October 1st, 2024, by authorization of Governor Jared Polis in honor of Gays Against Groomers. The people of Colorado present this flag to Gays Against Groomers with thanks and recognition for all their work to protect children.”

Jaimee Michell, the group’s founder, further amplified the false claim by writing, “So amazing. And Governor Polis is a Democrat, no less! To everyone who says we are far right, you are sorely mistaken. Protecting children is not a partisan issue. It is a moral one.”

The claim is entirely false, according to Colorado officials. The controversy stems from Gays Against Groomers’ use of Colorado’s Ceremonial Flag program. This program allows individuals and organizations to request that flags be flown over the State Capitol. However, the Department of Personnel and Administration, which oversees the program, did not vet the request appropriately. Within 90 minutes of The Advocate reaching out to the DPA for comment Tuesday morning, the Ceremonial Flag request program webpage was taken down, with a notice saying the form was “temporarily down.”

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LGBTQ+ advocates and organizations denounced the extremist group’s deception. One Colorado, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ rights, called the group out in a statement sent to The Advocate.

"One Colorado strongly condemns the deceptive actions of Gays Against Groomers (GAG), who continue to misrepresent themselves as a supportive LGBTQIA+ group. This behavior reveals a profound lack of integrity and undermines the values of honesty and transparency that we uphold," the statement read. "It is crucial to recognize that Gays Against Groomers is an extremist group that seeks to invalidate and erase transgender individuals through harmful tactics. Their statements should not be taken seriously." One Colorado emphasized that GAG consistently spreads misinformation about gender-expansive people and gender-affirming care, putting youth at risk. "The true threat to children comes from groups that claim to protect them while actively working to dismantle decades of progress achieved by the LGBTQIA+ community," the statement continued. The organization also highlighted Gov. Polis’s longstanding support for the transgender community, including his issuance of a proclamation for Transgender Day of Visibility in March 2024. “We have reached out to the Governor’s office for clarity on this situation,” One Colorado added.

Gays Against Groomers, founded in 2022, has gained notoriety for promoting dangerous and false reports about the LGBTQ+ community. The group has equated gender-affirming care with pedophilia and repeatedly targeted LGBTQ+ people, including educators, healthcare providers, and drag performers, labeling them “groomers.” Following the 2022 mass shooting at Colorado Springs’ Club Q, Michell claimed such tragedies would continue “until we end this evil agenda” of gender-affirming care. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have designated Gays Against Groomers as an extremist group. According to the ADL, GAG spreads “dangerous and misleading narratives” about the LGBTQ+ community and engages in harassment campaigns that fuel real-world violence. The SPLC further notes that GAG’s rhetoric aligns with far-right extremist ideologies and has helped incite violent actions, including attacks on LGBTQ+ spaces and events.

Mia Gingerich at MMFA: 

In January, the Anti-Defamation League released a report naming Gays Against Groomers, a group that “peddles dangerous and misleading narratives about the LGBTQ+ community,” among notable amplifiers of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric online. GAG reacted to the report as the group has consistently done whenever it has been called out for targeting LGBTQ rights and inclusion — by claiming that as a “coalition of gay people” it and its members are incapable of spreading anti-LGBTQ propaganda.

In reality, before the group’s founder Jaimee Michell rode the recent surge in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to guest spots on Fox News and right-wing podcasts, she and her fellow GAG chair David Leatherwood were pro-Trump operatives employed by right-wing communications firms representing other conservative figures who have attempted to capitalize off of the anti-LGBTQ fervor of the last two years.

This recent employment history underscores the far-right pedigree of both Michell and Leatherwood — a record that includes promotion of the QAnon conspiracy theory, intimate involvement with the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and emphatic support for the violent actions of the January 6 insurrectionists.

What is Gays Against Groomers?

GAG claims to fight against “the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization” of children, with Michell professing to have founded the group last year “to protect the kids” and “reclaim” the gay community’s “good standing in society.” The group has catered to a far-right audience, with Michell promoting the group on fringe outlets like One America News and Infowars. At the end of last year, GAG attended Turning Point USA’s convention, AmericaFest, where the group’s leaders cavorted with white nationalists, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and Kyle Rittenhouse.

ADL’s report also noted the coordination between GAG and far-right groups like Moms for Liberty. As with Moms for Liberty, GAG encourages its members to attend school board meetings and speak out against LGBTQ inclusion and policies. The group used this tactic to claim a victory in Florida last September, when it successfully harassed the Miami-Dade County School Board into voting against recognition of LGBTQ History Month. Last month, a member of the group’s executive team testified at a school board meeting in California where he argued that “every teacher that has a pride flag in their classroom should be fired and arrested.”

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The origins of Gays Against Groomers

In May 2022, Michell started a new job at X Strategies, a right-wing social media communications firm that promises its conservative clientele the ability to “create, shift, and control narratives.” The firm, co-founded and led by Bruesewitz, was previously implicated in a scheme involving paying online influencers as young as 14 years old to run ads for Trump insiders, including the campaign’s “Election Defense Fund.”

Michell’s new job, which she has since scrubbed from her online profiles, coincided with a precipitous rise in misuse and exploitation of the term “groomer” by right-wing figures to malign LGBTQ people and their allies. The smear campaign was part of the Republican strategy to drive right-wing voters to the polls for the midterm elections. The month after Michell started her new position, she announced the creation of Gays Against Groomers, which Michell used to compare any signs of acceptance for LGBTQ youth by schools, companies, public figures, or online users to “grooming.”

In September 2022, Michell announced the two other board members who would be leading GAG alongside herself — her fiancée Sasha Leigh and right-wing pro-Trump activist David Leatherwood.

ADL’s Center On Extremism:

In recent months, a handful of high-follower social media accounts have driven the rapid spread of dangerous and false narratives designed to marginalize and demonize the LGBTQ+ community. Online amplifiers of anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism use their influence to push baseless tropes and conspiracy theories to their millions of followers. These claims are frequently picked up by major far right media personalities, expanding their reach. Online amplifiers are key players in an ecosystem of anti-LGBTQ+ hate that drives online harassment campaigns against LGBTQ+ individuals and groups, and spreads narratives which inspire real-world extremist activities, threats and even violence.

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Online amplifiers of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism spread false information against the LGBTQ+ community, which has led to real-world harm. ADL has taken a number of measures to combat the detrimental effects of this vitriolic online activity, including partnering with social media platforms to develop and enforce robust Terms of Service that prevent online hate and harassment. Additionally, ADL is advocating for government partners to strengthen laws against perpetrators of online hate, as well as consulting with law enforcement partners to act on online hate speech that incites violence and/or credible threats. ADL will continue to develop community partnerships with LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations such as GLAAD, in efforts to counter hate speech with positive speech.

The research in this article was made possible thanks to a partnership between ADL and GLAAD focused on countering anti-LGBTQ+ extremism and hate. Click here to learn more about this critical partnership.

Josephine Harvey at HuffPost: 

Tucker Carlson was back at full-throttle anti-LGBTQ messaging Tuesday, one day after condemning the “horrifying” attack on a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over the weekend that left five people dead.

The Fox News host opened his segment by ticking off a list of his tropes characterizing gender-affirming care for trans youth as child abuse and suggesting that teaching children about the existence of gay and trans people equated to sexual exploitation ― all while arguing he had nothing at all against gay people.

Then he introduced his guest, Jaimee Michell, the founder of an anti-trans “coalition of gays” called Gays Against Groomers, which pushes the demonizing narrative that having conversations with children about gender identity is somehow grooming, sexualizing and indoctrinating them.

Michell raised the temperature further, suggesting anti-LGBTQ attacks like the one at Colorado Spring’s Club Q would continue until the “evil agenda” of gender-affirming care is stopped.

“You know, saying that ‘groomer’ is an anti-LGBTQ slur, that is doing irreparable damage to us as a whole, and it’s putting a really large target on our backs,” she said. “And unfortunately, you know, the tragedy that happened in Colorado Springs the other night, it was expected and predictable.”

“Sadly I don’t think it’s going to stop until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children,” she added.

On Tuesday night’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Jaimee Michell, the founder of anti-trans extremist group Gays Against Groomers, baselessly blames gender-affirming care for the anti-LGBTQ+-motivated shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs and defended the use of the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer” to attack drag shows, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQ+ community members and their supporters.

From the 11.22.2022 edition of FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight: