(Photo courtesy Maurice Cunningham)
Moms for Liberty will hold its annual summit in Orlando October 16-18. They will likely decry LGBTQ+ people as “groomers” and “pedophiles” while avoiding any call for the release of the Epstein Files, a lengthy record of the crimes of child sexual abuser and Donald Trump bestie Jeffrey Epstein.
Given the chance to protect children or protect Trump, Moms for Liberty chooses Trump.
President Trump is reported to have been mentioned numerous times in the files. Trump once called Epstein a “terrific guy.” Epstein termed Trump his “closest friend.” The Moms have enormous influence over Trump’s Department of Education and they want to keep it.
Moms for Liberty regularly defames the LGBTQ+ community but its own record runs from the comic to the criminal. Let’s take a look:
- Moms for Liberty’s South Carolina 2023 legislator of the year R.J. May, who accused drag queens and transgender individuals of harming children, pled guilty to distributing child sexual abuse material.
- Philip Fisher, Moms for Liberty’s faith coordinator in Philadelphia, was discovered to be a registered sex offender.
- Former Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, a speaker at the 2023 Moms for Liberty national summit who has accused schools of “pushing pornography,” reportedly was caught watching pornography during a meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
- Corey DeAngelis, a speaker at the Orlando summit, lost his position as “school choice evangelist” for Betsy DeVos’ American Federation of Children after news broke of his past as a star of gay porn films.
- A Florida mom attending a school board meeting trying to get a book banned “read aloud a sexually steamy passage from a book, claiming to be offended but getting herself aroused in the process.”
- Yearly summit speaker James Lindsay has taken credit for inventing the practice of calling LGBTQ+ people “groomers.” Lindsay once had his picture taken with Nicki Clyne, a member of the NXIVM sex cult, both posing with legs widespread. Clyne tweeted out the photo with her comment “I taught him everything he knows.”
- Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler faced an avalanche of news about a criminal investigation into accusations that her husband Christian Ziegler, then chair of the Florida Republican Party, had sexually assaulted a woman. The investigation revealed that Bridget and Christian had been enjoying threesomes with the woman. Bridget reportedly coached Christian as he was “on the prowl” in bars for potential threesome partners.
- Then there is Donald Trump. A court has ruled he must pay E. Jean Carroll a judgment of $83.3 million for defaming her after she truthfully claimed he sexually assaulted her. Trump reportedly walked into the dressing room where Miss Teenage USA beauty pageant contestants as young as fifteen were dressing. Of possible interest to females of “moms” age, Trump once explained how he interacts with women he finds desirable: “when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything…. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Parents should have no real concern with their children’s high school locker room, but protective parents would not allow their children backstage unaccompanied at a Moms for Liberty summit.
Moms co-founder Tiffany Justice interviewed Trump at the 2024 national summit, where he made the bizarre claim that “the transgender thing is incredible. Think of it. Your kid goes to school. And comes home a few days later with an operation.” Then Justice endorsed him and they shimmied to a little dance together.
The story of Moms for Liberty being “grassroots” has been hogwash from the start. Justice has thanked the right-wing Heritage Foundation for being “amazing partners since we started Moms for Liberty.” She now works at Heritage.
After Ziegler left Moms for Liberty she migrated to the far-right training group, the Leadership Institute. The Institute’s president Morton Blackwell told the 2023 summit that his operation “has partnered with Moms for Liberty since the early days.” Bridget was apparently pushed out of the Leadership Institute when the threesome scandal broke.
When third co-founder Tina Descovich and Justice appeared on 60 Minutes, host Scott Pelley asked them what they meant by calling people “groomers.” They appeared shocked at the question; neither could explain the term. Shortly thereafter Justice resumed her slander by calling a Free Mom Hugs volunteer a “Groomer.”
The gap between Moms for Liberty’s smears that supporters of LGBTQ+ freedoms are “groomers” and “pedos” and the Moms silence about a file that might expose pedophiles among the rich and powerful exposes the reality. Moms for Liberty is not about parents or children; it is simply another political arm of MAGA.
Maurice T. Cunningham, J.D., Ph.D. is author of “Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization” and an expert on right-wing “parents rights” groups. He retired from the University of Massachusetts at Boston as an associate professor of political science but continues to research and write about dark money.
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