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.
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.
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.