A California legislator who’s outspokenly opposed to nationwide attempts to roll back LGBTQ rights was targeted with a bomb threat that prompted police to search his home Tuesday.
California Sen. Scott Wiener, a gay state lawmaker from San Francisco, said Tuesday that the threat referred to him as a pedophile and a “groomer,” a word used by figures on the right to falsely accuse LGBTQ people and their allies of convincing minors that they’re gay in order to abuse them. Wiener also authored a bill signed into law in September which made California the first “refuge” state for transgender children seeking medical care.
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The threat is the latest in a wave of violence and threats against and related to the LGBTQ community, including a mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado last month. And although leading conservative politicians and pundits have denied contributing to these threats and violence, some similar right-wing rhetoric consistently shows up in threats such as the one Wiener received Tuesday.
The bomb threat against Wiener was first sent to the online news outlet the San Francisco Standard, which said it had reported the email to police.
“Early this morning, I was informed by the San Francisco Standard and the police that someone had issued a bomb threat against me, listing my specific home address and also threatening to shoot up my Capitol office,” Wiener said. “The email said ‘we will fucking kill you’ and called me a pedophile and groomer.”
Police did not find any explosive devices at Wiener’s home, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Wiener specifically called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and right-wing activist Charlie Kirk for pushing the narrative that people who support queer and transgender children are doing so for nefarious purposes. Greene, who has more than 2 million Twitter followers between her congressional and personal accounts, called Wiener a “communist groomer” in a Nov. 23 tweet, after he posted that “groomer” is “categorically an anti-LGTBQ hate word.”
“This latest wave of death threats against me relates to my work to end discrimination in the criminal justice system and my work to ensure the safety of transgender children and their families,” Wiener said in a statement. “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk recently tweeted homophobic lies about me, falsely accusing me of supporting pedophiles and child ‘mutilation.’”
Asked to respond, Greene spokesperson Nick Dyer told VICE News that Wiener and VICE News were “ridiculous,” but otherwise didn’t comment on the issue. Turning Point USA, which Kirk founded and continues to serve as executive director, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from VICE News.
The latest emailed threat to the San Francisco Standard used the name Zamina Tataro. That name was also used in threats issued against Boston Children’s Hospital over gender-affirming care and a Canadian high school over a transgender teacher, the National Post reported Tuesday.
Threats against the trans and LGBTQ community appear to be on the rise. There were nine times as many anti-LGBTQ demonstrations in 2021 than there were in 2020, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, which said 2022 was on track to end with even more such demonstrations. At least 35 transgender and gender nonconforming people have been murdered in 2022, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, and the Department of Homeland Security issued a “terror advisory bulletin” last month warning of a “persistent and lethal threat” to LGBTQ people, Jewish people, and migrants.
Last month, a shooter murdered five people and injured dozens more during a drag show at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ bar. The shooter, the grandchild of conservative California Assemblyman Randy Voepel, was charged Tuesday with 305 counts including murder and hate crimes. And the past weekend saw protests targeting drag events in four states, including in Columbus, Ohio, where dozens of members of the far-right Proud Boys and white nationalist Patriot Front forced the cancellation of a Drag Queen Story Hour event at a Unitarian church.
Wiener had previously received a bomb threat to his home and Capitol office in June, one that also called him a “groomer” and a “pedophile,” used homophobic slurs, and said “we will kill you.” Wiener said the latest threat would not stop his advocacy, but demanded that Republican leaders oppose bigotry from conservative politicians and media outlets before even more violence is carried out.
“The extreme homophobic and transphobic rhetoric that has escalated on social media and right-wing media outlets has real world impacts,” Wiener said. “People are dying as a result. It leads to harassment, stalking, threats, and violence against our community. Responsible political leaders on the right must call it out and stop tolerating it.”