By Kayla Gogarty | WASHINGTON — After Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw used an anti-LGBTQ slander to defend Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill on March 4, media and Right-wing figures have used similar absurd attacks to defend the legislation, accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children to be LGBTQ or engage in sexual activity.
Recently, Pushaw credited the anti-LGBTQ Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” with opening his eyes to the issue, and now Media Matters has discovered that Pushaw and the account have interacted at least 138 times since June 2021.
On March 28, DeSantis signed into law the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This anti-LGBTQ legislation prohibits discussions of sexuality or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade, though its vague wording can be used to prevent such discussions – even if broadly defined – at n any grade level.
Throughout March, right-wing figures and media responded to criticism of the extreme bill with mounting attacks accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children – the same Messaging originally tweeted by Pushaw on March 4. Simultaneously, right-wing media and personalities have also used Libs of TikTok’s anti-LGBTQ content as ammunition for their arguments.
Libs of TikTok is an anonymous anti-LGBTQ Twitter account that started on TikTok but moved to Twitter in November 2020, where it singles out individual TikTok users, including teachers, for ridicule and harassment in tweets that often go viral. April 13, Twitter briefly suspended the account for violating its policy against hateful conduct. The account has since been restored – even though Libs of TikTok has repeatedly misinterpreted public figures and content creators.
Pushaw has been interacting with Libs of TikTok and promoting it since at least July 2021. The account pushed the same anti-LGBTQ message Pushaw used, and Pushaw credited Libs of TikTok in a March 24 tweet with opening the eyes of educators teaching “about sex, sexuality and LGBT issues.”
Media Matters analyzed tweets from Libs of TikTok and found that in addition to posting videos targeting LGBTQ people, the account specifically used “groomer”-related language in 46 tweets since November 2021. The tweets generated more than 220,000 total interactions (replies, retweets, likes and quotes tweets), an average of almost 5,000 interactions per tweet, almost double the average interaction of other tweets in the account. Notably, the majority of tweets with language related to the Libs of TikTok “groomer” — 24 out of 46 — were posted before March 4, when Pushaw tweeted similar rhetoric.
Pushaw directly mentioned Libs of TikTok in 97 tweets, including 70 posted before his March 4 anti-LGBTQ tweets. TikTok’s Libs has also mentioned Pushaw in 41 tweets since June 2021, praising her as “one of the biggest accounts” on Twitter. (We coded tweets as “mentions” when a user replied to an account, tagged it in a tweet, or replied to another tweet that tagged that account.)
Pushaw has also repeatedly praised Libs of TikTok, similarly calling it “one of the best accounts here.” She also encouraged other users to view the “evidence” of the account.
Since Pushaw used “grooming” language in her tweets on March 4, she has tweeted similar language 22 more times, earning more than 23,000 interactions in total, or an average of 1,000 interactions per post. This average is roughly triple that of his other tweets. Meanwhile, Libs of TikTok continued to post anti-LGBTQ content, even responding to a tweet from Pushaw and praising the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation as “literally brilliant” for exposing “creeps” and those who ” identify as pro-grooming.”
Pushaw has continued to interact with Libs of TikTok since March 4, even recently requesting additional information about content that claims to expose Florida teachers and/or the curriculum.
The influence of Libs of TikTok is particularly problematic, as the account is run by an anonymous user who openly espouses anti-LGBTQ rhetoric – like calling LGBTQ identity “narcissism” based on “illusions” – called all teachers openly LGBTQ to be was fired and claimed in a recent interview that she was directly responsible for firing some “mean” teachers.
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Kayla Gogarty is Associate Research Director at Media Matters and focuses on misinformation.
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The previous article was previously published by Media Matters for America and is republished with permission.