During an interview with NBC on Monday, GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said that politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) “have to stop spreading lies. These are lies that they’re spreading and they’re causing pain and death and murder against our community, in addition to insufficient gun safety in this country. Couple that all together and you have what happened on Saturday night.” And also stated that “whether or not the motive on Saturday night turns out to be hate,” “it’s still an environment and a culture that we’re living in and that politicians are leading.”
Ellis stated that the increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes is “driven by two things, primarily: One is the rhetoric that’s coming out from politicians. They’re using our community as political footballs and they’re spreading lies and hate about our community. Just this past year, this past year alone, there have been over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed, 300 against a community that’s not looking for anything. So, I think there’s that. And then, add, couple that with social media platforms that are monetizing hate, that are monetizing lies. They’re making money off of spreading hate, and they’re not stopping and they have the tools to stop it. So, it’s incredibly frustrating to see something like Saturday night happen when you know what’s driving it. Whatever the motive comes out to be, we know that there is an increase in this culture of hate and rhetoric around our community that is resulting in real-world harm.”
She continued, “And even a report that we’re about to release shows that, in the past year, there have been either 100 violent attacks or threats of violence against drag events across this country, in this country. Brunches, I mean, we’re talking about brunch, people. So, I think that DeSantis, Boebert, they have blood on their hands on this. They have to stop spreading lies. These are lies that they’re spreading and they’re causing pain and death and murder against our community, in addition to insufficient gun safety in this country. Couple that all together and you have what happened on Saturday night. And you have it — you know, in this city alone, in New York City, on Saturday night, a brick was thrown through a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen. That’s the fourth time that happened in a week to that bar. So, you can see, whether or not the motive on Saturday night turns out to be hate, which, it all — it looks like it’s pointing that way, it’s still an environment and a culture that we’re living in and that politicians are leading. They’re leading this hate.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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