Kristen Browde has amassed over 380,000 followers on TikTok by debunking the anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” myth, and no one is more shocked by her success on the platform than she is. “TikTok is supposed to be this app where teenagers do dance moves, but it turns out it’s an incredibly effective political organizing tool,” she tells Them in an interview. “I am delighted that people are finding this useful information and are sharing it.”

Browde, an attorney and former correspondent for CBS News, posts weekly videos aggregating local media reports of children being targeted by sexual predators, sourced from keyword searches on Google and DuckDuckGo, as well as tips from followers. (She posts all her data at her website WhoIsMakingNews.com, where it’s available for anyone to download.) In the six months since she created her first TikTok video, she has noticed a continuing trend: that very few of the perpetrators who are being arrested for preying on kids are drag queens or trans people, the targets du jour of the right. Instead, Browde found that the individuals who are responsible for the vast majority of reported incidents hail from the very groups pointing the finger at the LGBTQ+ community, from religious leaders to Republican politicians. “They’re the ones who are committing the crimes,” she says. “They’re the ones who are doing this.”

    • ChapolinColoradoNZ@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      well, when you use the Catholic Church as your level of reference, you’re setting the bar almost as low as it can get…

      • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, I appreciate seeing the data but I think to most of us this is probably quite obvious

    • ghostOfRoux();@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      As much as it is a “duh” moment finding out that transfolk aren’t groomers, it’s great to see someone independently collecting this data.