Conservative Anti-LGBTQ+ Trolls Cause Threats of School Violence
As a community and the country continue reeling from the devastating mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, right-wing trolls are fueling threats of violence against schools over Title IX concerns.
Conservative media outlets and social media accounts are aiming at the Biden administration's reversal of some Trump-era policies and the expansion of others as they pertain to Title IX, the federal civil rights law that protects students from sex discrimination, according to Media Matters.
Last month, threats of violence forced a school district in Wisconsin to take drastic security measures.
The Kiel Area School Board canceled the remaining in-person school year for children in its district because of multiple bomb threats. In addition, the school announced that it dropped a Title IX investigation after weeks of threats, local TV station WFRV reports. Students will finish the semester virtually.
The threats stem from the district's March investigation of a Title IX complaint against three teenage boys for purposely misgendering a fellow student. After the complaint became public in May, the school and other local entities received threats of violence amid right-wing criticism of the investigation.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a law firm founded in 2011 that represents conservative causes, went on a media blitz, calling attention to the investigation and fomenting outrage at its existence, according to Media Matters.
On May 13, the anti-LGBTQ+ Twitter troll Libs of TikTok tweeted a clip of a local news story about the investigation with the comment "This is unreal." The tweet went viral, and Fox News and One America News Network picked it up, the website reports. Newsmax evened out the trifecta of right-ring propaganda networks that covered the story and stirred its viewers.
Right-wing news site The Federalist wrote, "Under Biden's Title IX Changes, Wisconsin's 'Sexual Harassment' Circus Over Trans Pronouns Would Ensnare Students in Every State."
New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz wrote on FoxNews.com that one of the nonbinary victims was a "crybull[y]" who uses pronouns as weapons to destroy other students.
The conservative Washington Examiner called for fighting acceptance by force. "This deranged view of 'tolerance' and 'inclusivity' calls for all dissent to be forcibly shut down, even if it comes from 13-year-olds," the piece read.
This is the latest in a war on LGBTQ+ people across the country, spurred on by accounts like Libs of TikTok and those who amplify the faux outrage.
