The Daily Signal - SPLC 'Labeled Us Anti-Ourselves': Gays Against Groomers Founder Responds to 'Hate Group' Smear

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Jamie Michell, a lesbian who founded the organization Gays Against Groomers, finds it ironic and "hilarious" that the Southern Poverty Law Center brands her openly LGBTQ group an "anti-LGBTQ hate group." "It classifies us as an anti-LGBTQ hate group, which is the most ironic and hilarious thing ever because everybody in our organization is gay and we even have a few trans people," Michell tells The Daily Signal in an interview at the Republican National Convention earlier this month. Enjoy the show! Read more here: https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/07/29/splc-labeled-us-anti-ourselves-gays-against-groomers-founder-reacts-hate-group-smear/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, July 29th. I'm Tyler O'Neill. I sat down with Jamie Michelle. She is a lesbian who founded the organization, Gaze Against Groomers, because she saw that the LGBTQIA plus, you know, however long you want to do the acronym, movement has been promoting this sexualized and, you know,

really disturbing content for children. And she decided that, you know, this did not represent her. This did not represent other gays and lesbians that she knew. And she decided she would form a group called Gays Against Groomers to speak the truth, to say, look, we want to be accepted by society. But we don't want. And part of that acceptance does not involve forcing sexualized lessons on kids in schools in the name of quote. unquote inclusion. So she has been out there speaking out against just the way that this movement has kind of been in her eyes co-opted to promote not necessarily exactly pedophilia, but really to

push sexualized lessons on kids in a way that is really shocking. And she sat down with me. We spoke at the Republican National Convention earlier this month. And she was just talking. about how insane it is, that her organization, which is, you know, all people who identify as LGBT, that they've been branded an anti-LGBQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Now, of course, if you listen to this podcast, if you've read any of my reporting, or hopefully if you've read my book Making Hate Pay, the corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, you know not to trust this group as far as you can throw it. but the Southern Poverty Law Center has long demonized mainstream conservative and Christian groups

for disagreeing with its woke agenda. And now it's even gone so far as to demonize an actual LGBT group, namely gays against groomers, putting it on the list of quote unquote anti-LGB hate groups. And by the way, not just a list of these ostensible hate groups, but also on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, a map that has inspired an act of domestic terrorism in 2012 against the Family Research Council, which now, you know, the Family Research Council remains on the SPLC hate map ever since, despite this terrorist attack against it. So this is extremely shocking, but Jamie took it all in stride. And she said that she found this to be ironic and even in her words, hilarious that the SPLC is, in her words, labeling us anti ourselves just for speaking out wanting to protect children. So, I mean, I think it is hilarious.

I think it's also rather disturbing. And it's good to explain why the SPLC does not have any credibility. but I also think that a lot of conservatives and many who don't identify as conservative but who dissent from the left-wing narrative, you know, they often look down on the SPLC as being entirely a joke. But in reality, it's also, you know, it has some impact in the Biden administration, in the legacy media. So I think it's important always to note that this organization has no credibility, that it's had multiple scandals, a sexual, harassment and racial discrimination scandal as recently as 2019. And then, you know, the fact that former employees have called the SPLC's hate labels and a highly profitable scam and the fact that they're also currently in court in a defamation case that was brought by DA King of the Dustin

Inman Society. So the SPLC faces a lot of headwinds, but they're still regarded, you know, many people still regard them as reliable. And we even see, you know, gaze against groomers, their Wikipedia page cites the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League has joined the Southern Poverty Law Center in attacking gays against groomers, despite the fact that they are an LGBT group. So, you know, listen to our conversation. I think Jamie really knocked it out of the park. I listen to our conversation right after this. This is Mike Althe Harage Foundation. I know how to be a lot of the Harwich Foundation. I know how the left and the deep state operate because I've seen it from the inside. When I was working for

the Trump administration, I learned how the left made our lives miserable and how they continued to think they could play by their own rules. Well, now we're taking all of these tricks and tactics that were deployed against the Trump administration and turning them against the Biden regime. Through the work of the oversight project, we're exposing the left for what they are and embarrassing some actors responsible. We're using strategic foias and fearless litigation to force these bureaucrats to deliver documents they'd prefer to never see the light of day. But for our work to be successful, we need patriots like you to stand with us. You can take action now.

Visit heritage.org slash oversight to learn more. There's no time to waste. I am honored to be joined by Jamie Michelle, who is the founder and president of Gays Against Groomers, a bona fide, SPLC certified anti-LGB group. Yes, exactly. that's about the gist of it yeah we're according to many groups now the ADL SPLC Wikipedia

even our Wikipedia it classifies us as an anti-LGBT hate group which is the most ironic and hilarious thing ever because everybody in our organization is gay and we even have a few trans people you know everybody is part of the community in our organization right so it's very silly how they use that to try and stop us but I think people understand

that's probably not true Yeah, so can you differentiate and show, like, I think most of our audience probably knows, but why gays against Groomers and why is it important to be engaged in this conversation? Right, well, you know, I and everybody in Gays Against Groomers along like you and everyone else has seen the onslaught of videos and propaganda and media just coming out, targeting children from the LGBTQIA plus community. and it was very important to me to be able to speak out against it and say, you know, because every single gay person I know and even trans people,

we've all been staunchly against this, right? So, but if you get your, if you just look online or on TV, you know, the mainstream narrative coming from our community is that we all support this. And so it was very important to me to create a group to fight back against it from inside the community to differentiate, draw a big red line between, you know, us and the, them show that not all gay people, not all trans people want to hurt children. We just want to live our lives like everybody else, but also because I felt like we could be most effective at stopping it. That was really the most important part to me, you know, protecting, just ending this agenda,

targeting children, because the second straight people, God bless them all, for speaking out, you know, they're instantly written off as homophobic and transphobic, and obviously that's not true, but, you know, they have a harder time doing that to us, even though, as you, as you As you noted, like the SPLC ADL, all these outlets and organizations have labeled us anti ourselves just for speaking out wanting to protect children. But, you know, that's kind of the state of things. But, you know, we have had great success and our voices are very effective because, I mean, they can't, what are they going to do? You know, they have a harder time. These labels have a harder time sticking to us than they do anybody else.

And so, yeah, it was very important to just start. a counter movement to what we see happening because it's completely unacceptable. And, you know, being pro-child protection and pro-child safety is not anti-anything, and that's our main message. So where does the visceral, you know, I think protecting children, especially from some of the trans ideology when they're young, when they don't know what they're doing, you know, like on a visceral level, where does it hit you? I mean, the whole thing is just absolutely abhorrent.

Like, I genuinely, every day that we're in this battle, I can't believe this is real life. You know, like not even 10 years ago, gay marriage was federally legalized. And now, in such a short amount of time, it feels like all the actual progress we made, and our gay and lesbian elders made is being wiped away by these people. And, you know, so gays against rumors, we fight the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children happening under the guise of LGBTQIA. Plus, plus, plus. Plus, plus.

There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. Nobody will ever say what the plus stands for. I think they're trying to incorporate the P for pedophilia. So I think that's next. But, you know, I would say that the most important part to me is the medically transitioning of children, you know, amputating the healthy body parts of young girls.

I can't imagine having to be stuck with the decision I made as a 9, 10, 11, 12-year-old. Like, it's absolutely insane. and I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago. And, you know, I'm a grown adult, and I was then too. But it's just, you know, it's been common sense and common knowledge for all of human history that no child can make permanent lifelong decisions up until, like, five minutes ago. And it feels like the whole world has gone absolutely mad. But we're making really good progress.

You know, since Gays Against Grumers is a little over two years old now. And in that time, we've gotten, we've helped get gender affirming care for minors banned. in, I want to say, 22 or 23 states. Yeah, when we started two years ago, it was either restricted or banned in just four. So we're making a lot of progress. There's a lot of work left to do, though, and we're reminded of that every day.

I mean, you saw what just happened in California with, you know, Newsom signing AB-1955, which basically, you know, teachers will no longer be able to inform parents if their child starts identifying as trans in school. It's like, you know, trying to, there's, it's just so evil, trying to create a wedge between the family and the child, or the parents and the child, you know, we, we are staunch advocates for parental rights and, you know, the parents need to know what's going on in their kids' lives. The teachers aren't going to be there for them for their whole lives, you know, like they, they, and they shouldn't, they shouldn't feel like they, parents shouldn't feel left out of this conversation and they should not be pushed away from, from what's happening to their kids. So it's really sad what's going on. We're making a lot of progress, though, but there's a lot left to do.

So I've heard lesbian feminists, whom I really admire, like Miriam Ben Shalom, compare transgender ideology for kids, and especially the medicalization, to conversion therapy. Oh, 100%. Yeah, would you unpack that? Yeah, I fully agree with that. And, you know, we touch on that a lot. The thing is, is that the majority of these gender non-conforming kids, you know, more, more masculine girls or more feminine boys, they're overwhelmingly going to grow up to be just gay adults,

right? Like, it's actually horrifying for me. I know for a fact that if I would have grown up today, I would have thought I was a boy. I've been a tomboy my whole life, you know. I have always hated feminine, hyperfeminine things, like to this day and way back when I was a kid, you know. And so I would have absolutely been preyed upon by this cult, this cultish agenda. And, you know, if my parents bought into it, the scary part really is that, you know, like so many parents, they are lied to and made to believe that, you know, you have to transition your child. Otherwise, they will unalive themselves, basically, right? So if my parents bought into that, they would have medically transitioned me without a doubt. And, you know, I've never wanted to be a boy or a man a day in my life.

I'm just a tomboy. You know, so like one of our main campaigns, excuse me, is, and a hashtag we use all the time, is save the tomb boys. You know, and save the feminine boys too. It's like, you know, the craziest thing about that is that, you know, the gender ideology and the trans cult is bringing back these stereotypes. Like these super binary, you know, what it means to be a girl or a boy or a man or a woman. Right. It's like, you know, they actually, in the UK, I believe it was at Mermaids. Mermaids is this like trans child organization.

You're familiar. So like they had a graphic that came out that showed like a scale from zero to 10, zero being extremely girly and or like a full girl and 10 being a full boy. And at the zero was a picture of a Barbie and at the 10 was a picture of G.I. Joe. So it's like it's so crazy. Like, that's, you know, gay people especially have been kind of pushing back against that binary gender stereotype, right? Like, that there isn't a certain, there isn't just one way to be a boy or a girl or a woman or a man. You know, it's, and now it's like if kids deviate from these stereotypical, rigid ideas of what a boy or girl is,

they're instantly told they're trans, you know, and sent down the conveyor belt of, like, permanent medicalization. So, but yeah, I 100% agree. It is a form of conversion therapy, except it's way worse. It's like a thousand times worse because, you know, regular old-fashioned conversion therapy, just tried to change your mind, right? This conversion therapy leaves kids with missing body parts and sterilized. Well, when I hear conversion therapy, I always think of electroshock therapy and things that most people who do that kind of therapy today don't do.

Right. But, you know, back in the day, the guy who came up with the lobotomy, you know, he won a Nobel Prize back then. It's like, but things change, right? And so if I could just give a message to people watching and to parents especially, you know, a lot of people are scared to speak out because they think that, you know, they will be thought of as anti-LGBQ, you know. But you have to get rid of that notion. and just find your courage and speak out against it because history will not be kind to those that stayed silent during this and let it continue.

And as soon as more people speak up, the more people speak up, the faster it will end. They can't do it if everybody speaks out against it. And people know it's wrong. I think even people that push this know it's wrong. So they're just sick people. That's what we're dealing with. Well, so I wrote a book about the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I don't know if you want to have a, I have... Actually, I saw that. You made a video about gays against groomers, and I think you... Yeah, I saw that on your site, actually. But also, I wanted to ask you, we saw an assassination attempt against former President Trump earlier this week. And I wanted to hear if you've faced, you know, obviously not quite on that level, but death threats, you know, various threats. And would you draw any connection to the hate that's going around against you and your organization and what we saw on Saturday? I definitely wouldn't compare it at all. But we do get death threats.

I mean, our inbox is filled with death threats. You know, I don't want to even remotely compare because, I mean, his life was spared by a millimeter and a millisecond. But it is insane the level of hate that, that, you know, that. gets thrown our way or anybody that speaks out against the approved narrative and agenda. But it's really sad. You know, we get, I've been doxed, which worries me. You know, it's something that I think about, just sitting at home. You know, is today going to be the day I got to use the Second Amendment?

I don't know. You know, I don't live in fear, though. I don't live in fear, but it's a worry. But, you know, you can't, they want, they do that so you'll stop, so you're scared and you're quiet. And like President Trump, you know, it's not going to stop him. And it shouldn't stop anybody else that is confronted with threats like that. Because then they win, you know, they win.

And we're not going to let them win because too much is on the line, you know. So you're here at the Republican National Convention? I am. What do you think of the GOP these days? Honestly, you know, speaking for myself, I've been on the right for, a long time now, kind of probably over a decade. But Gays Against Groomers is a non-partisan

organization. But sadly, the only party speaking out against this stuff that we fight against is the Republican Party. You know, the Democrats are the ones pushing it. So I you know, we are more aligned with the Republican Party. The GOP platform,

you know, I saw President Trump came out last year with a video saying that he was going to federally, nationally ban child sterilization. of mutilation. You know, gender affirming care, I hate, I always have to use my air quotes. It's such a gaslighting term. It really is.

It reminds me of like BLM, right? Like, the left and progresses are so manipulative and intentional with the language they use because, like, who could come out against Black Lives Mattering, right? It's like, oh, you don't think Black Lives Matters? It's like, who could come out of, who could come out against care for children, that, you know, their lives depend on it? You know, that's what they say, like, they're going to kill themselves if they don't get this So they're very tactful with their language, their choice of words.

But no, you know, I fully support the Republican Party trying to end it. We, you know, it's unfortunate that this issue has been made political. It shouldn't be political. This isn't like a left versus right. This is right versus wrong. And it should be something that should unite both parties. Like if the one thing people on the left or right should be able to agree, about is protecting kids, you know.

But that's not the case. So, you know, but we're happy to see the Republican Party taking steps. You know, every new piece of legislation that gets passed, it's passed by Republicans. So in terms of banning the gender affirming care and child drag shows and all this stuff. So, yeah. And what do you say to those who say that, you know, child drag shows and these books that we've seeing these explicit books are important to make LGBT people feel normalized? Yeah, I'd say that we already feel normalized.

You know, like, we are so welcome in society. It's like we've overdosed on tolerance. You know, you see every major corporation panders to us, bends the knee to us, every politician on the left, you know, we're good. Like, we already feel included enough. So I would say that, no, children don't need to learn how to become inclusive by reading pornographic material. No, they don't need to see a man dressed scantily, nearly nude with fake breasts to learn about tolerance and acceptance. You know, it's very simple.

To teach a child about tolerance and acceptance and inclusion, all you have to do is say you treat everybody the same. No matter who they are, no matter what their family looks like, just you treat everybody the same in how you want. wanted to be treated. And then in terms of like teaching about gay people, just say, you know, some families, not all families look the same. That's it. Like it's really, that's it. But you treat them the same, you know. They're no different than us. It's, it really could be that simple, you know. But that's where I say, you know, our community has been hijacked. Like, they're using us to push this pornographic filth in our name, right? And they do that so nobody can speak out against it without being labeled a hateful bigot.

And so that's why, Gaze Against Groomers, you know, we've been banned from 15 or 16 platforms now. I personally have been banned from PayPal and Venmo as well as the organization. I can't use, you know, they canceled our payment. They banned us from, you know, accepting donations. So we found an alternative, but it just goes to show you, you know. So they fear us because I really feel like our voices carry more weight

in the conversation, speaking out from inside the community, So, you know, we're not going to stop until the war is won. But it's funny, I'll just end on this. I got interviewed a while ago, and I forget who, but he said, where do you see Gays Against Groomers in five years from now, 10 years from now? And I was like, I pray to God, we don't have to exist. I don't want, you know, there's no, like, long-term plan here with Gays Against Groomers. We just want to get the job done and, like, go back.

I never imagine that this is what I'd be doing with my life. 10 years ago when gay marriage got legalized, you know? And so now I have to, we're doing this, you know, somebody's got to do it, so we're doing it. But the 10-year plan is to win the war and go home and go about our lives. So that's it. Yeah. Well, what would you say, and I know we should wrap up, no, it's okay. But I'm, you know, I'm a conservative Christian. I believe certain things that you certainly don't agree with. For sure. And I just want to hear from you, you know, it's, you know, it's interesting, disagreeing on important things, but also agreeing on what I think are more important, like concrete in the here and now things. Have you seen any of this hate from people on the social conservative right that we always hear so much about from the Southern Poverty Law Center?

Yeah. We get much more hate from people from progressives, you know, and I fully understand and accept and I'm fine that there are, are, you know, very social conservatives and Christian conservatives that do not agree or think gay marriage is okay or, you know, think being gay is okay. But we don't receive any hate vote. Like, I have yet to see that. I know people believe that and feel that way, and that's fine. I would never want to change that about somebody, you know? All I say and ask is that we can put our differences aside and both fight for this common cause that we have, which is protecting children and I hope that people that are against gay people or have a problem with gay people or gay marriage understand how impactful our voices are and want to work with us at least in this

regard you know I'm not I'm not one of those people and none of us a gag are that like demand you accept us and and welcome us into your you know whatever but um there is a common cause here that we all can unite on and and that's what's most important yeah well and I think Acceptance is on very different levels, right? Like, I think we're allies. We respect each other tremendously. It's just a difference of opinion on something. No, but we don't ever face.

We don't ever, I never see, you know, the big, scary Christian conservatives, you know, barking at us. And, no, it's always coming from the other side. The people, the pro-child mutilation advocates and, you know, the groomers. all of them. That's where the hate comes from for us. Yeah, except I would say Westboro Baptist, who I find really obnoxious and, like, wholeheartedly disagree with.

Are they even still around? Like, I have not seen them in so long, but I have said this many times is that what the LGBTQIA plus ink, like what the mob, the gay alphabet mob is doing, is hurting us more than even the Westboro Baptist Church could have ever hoped to, you know. Like, they are doing more damage by going after children. And people are equating all gay people, all trans people, with child predators, right?

And, like, gay people fought for a very long time to rid themselves of that stigma. And now, here we are, you know. So, yeah, I truly believe that they're hurting us more than even the most extreme bigots could ever dream to. Well, thank you so much, Jamie, Michelle. Thank you. and keep doing what you're doing and let us know if more people cancel you

and we would love to write about it and push back. I'm sure you'll hear from me soon because we get canceled like every other week from a new platform. But yeah, no, thank you so much for the support and for covering gaze against rumors before. And it's a pleasure to speak with you here. And that was Jamie Michelle. Again, this is Tyler O'Neill.

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