“Groomer” is the new favorite term being used by far-right commentators and activists to describe opponents of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, sparking outrage among LBGTQ advocates who say that it is a smear that feeds into a trope casting members of the community as pedophiles.
The Florida bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis week, which opponents have decried as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
“Groomer” started to gain traction as a term around the time the Florida legislature passed the bill last month. Those on the fringes argue that opponents of the Florida law and other similar measures are enabling children to be primed for abuse by allowing such instruction to push them to question their gender identity.
A spokesperson for DeSantis, Christina Pushaw, tweeted last month that the legislation “would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill.”
A segment from Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday talking about gender education in schools was titled “Doom & Groom.” In another early March segment, Ingraham said that public schools have become “grooming centers for gender identity radicals.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has also embraced the descriptor. “Anyone who opposes anti-grooming laws like the one in Florida is pro-child predator. Stop sexualizing children,” she said in a tweet.
It’s amazing how words applied to human behaviors as inferences to the animal sense or definition, and are used with onerous connotation.
Just take a look at how dictionary.com defines the word “groom.”
1.A bridegroom (noun)
2.A man or boy in hates of horses, or a stable of horses.
3.any of several officers of the English Royal household.
4.Manservant( archaic) ( noun 3rd person)
Verbs(as the object of a sentence)
5.To carefully tend to a person and dress; make neat or tidy.
6. To clean and brush or otherwise tend. ( as a horse, dog etc.)
7. To prepare for a position, election, etc. – The Mayor is being groomed for the Presidency.
So who’s grooming who?
lol
Every time I read about Florida it seems to continue its constant trajectory of becoming a hateful state that is politicizing and more importantly monetizing on Registrants as scapegoats for their worst fears. I loathe these politicians that push their fearmongering tactics for political gain on ignorant citizens at the expense of Registrants lives and taxpayer money.
Well Tim n WI you have something their. See you can look at Florida in a corporal punishment light of the sex registry. Is Florida being a God in and of themself. Even the bible says study to show thyself approved. Yes many want to study to be approved. Today are some acting like a God in their own-selves? Mix a little mythology in this and you have a psycho court of justice drama on your hands which in many ways doesn’t get to the true issue.
Sure prevention is good even protecting and serving. One has to say who is committing the evil in much of this judicial meltdown. Seems everyone wants to win some justice and also get a good conduct medal in the long run. Government is not perfect as their are forces of evil within whether it be in Government. Has government lost its foundation? Do we all trust oneself or another? Sure courts have a tough decision but who is the groomer that molds things together or who is defacing others in this whim of true justice.
Sorry, to put a fly in this tread, however, I agree with this law, because it does protect children from fringed groups trying to indoctrinate children and put parents in charge of raising their kids, and that is the way it should be.
This is much ado about nothing, tbh.
Opponents of the Florida bill that prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from K to 3rd grade can “smear” the bill as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It’s very odd for the opponents of the bill when the bill is prohibiting instruction on ALL sexual orientation and gender identity for only K to 3rd grade. Sex ed is still being taught in the higher grade levels.
“a smear that feeds into a trope casting members of the community as…” (insert noun). “Don’t Say Gay” and “Groomer” are the same political messaging, where the “Groomer” messaging was a retort to the “Don’t Say Gay” messaging.
People don’t like reading bill, but latch onto headlines. And when that same tactic is used against them, then those same people feel offended and want nuance introduced?
People are just crazy, but we can converse with individuals.
I don’t think there is any reason that children in K-3 need to be taught about sex. I find the concept very troubling. In traditional school, as you reach puberty and start developing sexually then discuss the changes in the body. I don’t want an adult talking to my 6 year old about sex, there just isn’t any logic and makes me also believe there is an ulterior motive by some.
Can somebody please just put this woman in a straight jacket already?
The bottom line is the ONLY kind of gender identity that should be taught in public schools is that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina, and this should ONLY be taught to kids when they reach the age where they understand these differences. I recently pulled my now 9 year old out of public school and enrolled her into a private school because the government thought it was a good idea to push their agenda that its ok for a boy to “pretend” he is a girl, and a girl to “pretend” she is a boy. The school thought it was ok for a boy to walk into the girl’s restroom if he decided he wanted to say he was a girl that day. My kid knows this is nonsense and understands she was born a girl and that can never change….period. I don’t care what people do at home, and I don’t care if someone wants to be gay, a lesbian, or a rock as long as it doesn’t affect me or my family.
Schools need to stop this political nonsense and stick to teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic.
I don’t think they’re doing “sex education” at Pre-K through 3rd grade. It’s not like teachers are out there willy-nilly saying whatever they like to kids about sex. That kind of stuff is carefully researched so that whatever is taught it age-appropriate. It’s my understanding that the kind of stuff that’s talked about at those ages are like “Some people have two mommys or two daddys, and that’s okay” or “if you’re a boy and you want to wear a dress, that’s okay”. It’s not “the birds and the bees” at that age, because that wouldn’t make sense.
Transgender operation??
Same sex ‘so-called’ marriage??
While they are at it, why don’t they try to add another hour to the day,
another day to the week, and another month to the year,
since they are trying to change everything else that God has instituted since the beginning of creation?!
What’s the next abomination they will come up with and then try to justify it in the name of freedom??
Abusing freedom, like abusing anything else, comes with a price!!
Folks lets stop these comments for a minute with this article. No I didn’t want to bring the bible or good book into this. Should we all say “filthy rags” or who is outgrowing their righteousness. Now “righteousness” is doing what is right. Is it right to set-up another person, tie a rope around their neck, burn them at the stake, etc?
Is GOP or Government wanting to be their own God. I will admit doing good is good but in many of these ordeals they are the groomers or entice the other with their come on’s. How can one do that when the basics are the commandments but seems government seems to ignore all that. Sure if you really want to know Adam didn’t sin.. it was Eve the woman. You guys tell me doesn’t a woman get the last word in on everything even if she is wrong or is divorce course the course of action today in these irreconcilable differences. Do we all make choices today or decisions today? IS punishment some plea deal or who is being victimized today or used by this grooming. Yes this article is good if you use it constructively.
The recent comments have gotten off track.
We don’t talk about Bru… errr… I mean sex and gender until children reach adolescence. Why? Because that’s when everything starts to change from a child to adolescent, medically and psychologically. The Florida bill keeps it that way within the school structure, no sex or gender instructions of any kind for K through 3rd grade.
Why are so many on here neglecting the mental and physical ages of K through 3rd graders? By admission of this Florida bill, sex ed will be taught in the 4th grade and up. There isn’t any prevention of sex or gender instruction from 4th grade and up.
Let children be children until they hit adolescence.
Oh the anatomy of it all…
NJ inmates at women’s only prison pregnant after sex with ‘another incarcerated person’
Women impregnated by another “woman” at a women only facility? XX and XY come through…could see this coming a country mile away.