The progressive left is very upset that people are able to see them clearly and aren’t afraid to criticize them any longer. This was made abundantly clear by the passionate support of Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz for her hit piece against the popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok. While the primary discussion has been the ethics of journalists’ selective targeting, harassment, and doxxing of private individuals, it was the underlying argument of justification that provides the most interest.
In one response, Lorenz argues, “Yes, an acct whose goal is driving LGBTQ ppl out of public life is bad. Gay/trans ppl targeted by the acct have had their lives destroyed, but the *point* of the story is actually a nuanced look at radicalization & how the right wing outrage cycle functions. That’s worth covering.”
In another, she self-righteously asserts, “Lots of convo about the ‘harm’ of covering a powerful online figure, but not much abt the harm done to the average LGBTQ+ ppl the acct seeks to drive out of schools and public life. I hope people read this whole story and understand this account’s impact.”
This theme became a primary foundation of support for Lorenz’s article. Huffington Post writer Christopher Mathias, covering “right-wing extremism and MAGA,” argued, “you don’t have a right to spread hate/fear/lies anonymously. there is a social cost to that.” Senior reporter for NBC News Ben Collins described the author of Libs of TikTok as “Fox News’ favorite aggregator of LGBTQ teachers they don’t like the look of.”
Popular Twitch creator Hasan Piker, with more than 1 million followers on Twitter, argued, “this woman is quite literally cutting propaganda for the republican party by blasting random queer teachers on the tl and trying to get them fired. unmasking her is journalism. making it seem like this is just some random twitter acc is odd.”
Critics Miss the Point
Yet among the many accusing Libs of TikTok of being “anti-LGBT,” none of them seem to recognize that the account quite literally reposts TikTok videos by LGBT activists themselves. The entire purpose of the Twitter account is to upload videos from TikTok — which each TikTok creator permits in their own settings and can alter per video — to demonstrate to its audience what LGBT activists are saying out loud.
Quite a remarkable number of self-identified teachers use their platform on TikTok to boast about their LGBT activism, often in direct defiance of school policy or the law. Somehow this has been twisted into an attack on LGBT people because many on the right, and a lot of average Americans, voiced outrage.
To argue that LGBT people are being silenced, harassed, and driven into hiding by presenting their own words is creatively absurd. Again, the account being accused of “spreading hate, fear and lies” did not manipulate these videos in any way. What the public witnessed was exactly what the LGBT activist in question chose to present to the world.
Parents Weren’t Supposed to See This
It is the bias of journalists and other media figures who agree with the LGBT activists on display here. They are offended that regular Americans would be critical of or even outraged by the transparent presentations of this activism — activism they hoped regular Americans, and in particular, parents, would never see.
TikTok is a medium largely targeted at pre-teens to young adults. LGBT activist teachers are not speaking to parents in their videos, they are addressing young audiences and virtue signaling to their like-minded peers. Responsible adults, parents, and community leaders were never supposed to find out about their indoctrination efforts and propaganda.
When Lorenz says, “[Libs of TikTok] is playing on fears and misunderstandings of who trans people are, while amping up extreme rhetoric and normalizing portraying queer people as inherently dangerous to children,” she is arguing that parents wouldn’t understand what they are seeing right before their eyes. How else would sharing the unedited self-expression of adult transgender activists with an intended minor audience be considered “playing” on anyone’s fears? It’s not the LGBT activists and their content, she insists, it’s the bigoted parents who just don’t understand.
This continued theme of left-wing adults advocating for parents to be less and less involved in their children’s lives, for their children’s own safety, is precisely why regular Americans and especially parents have reacted to these videos with such visceral outrage. We are seeing educators, often teaching children in pre-school age ranges, boldly boasting of introducing complex ideas like gender identity without parental knowledge or consent. Teachers performing drag shows during school hours wearing revealing clothing and middle school teachers saying, “If your parents don’t accept you for who you are, f-ck them. I’m your parents now.”
Parents Should Be Outraged
Of course rational people would find these things completely inappropriate and parents should be outraged that activists feel so emboldened to impose their own moral value systems onto their children, intentionally hiding it from the parents involved. LGBT activists are not being targeted for firing because they are LGBT. They are being held accountable for their inappropriate actions. Bringing all of this to light is not “attacking” anyone, it is simply showing the average American what LGBT activists only want kids to see.
The narrative that LGBT minors need exclusive and protected media, education, counseling, and adult affirmation from educators, while intentionally excluding parents, must be aggressively challenged. Parental rights must include full access to what their children are being taught and what public information educators put out.
Furthermore, the obscene argument that LGBT people are harmed when regular people react to their own advocacy must be mocked and dismissed. LGBT people are responsible for their own publicly shared words and they should not be protected from the consequences of those words by the like-minded media.
