As June is wrapping up it has been a tough Pride Month for the activist set. There has been diminished corporate support, select companies have paid a heavy price for their involvement, and select polls have emerged showing diminished public tolerance for the activist push. Then, after claims that gay/trans backers are targeting children were nothing more than conservative conspiracies, this weekend we were granted visuals from Pride marches that showed sexualized encounters with kids.

In one particularly damning example, a video from the New York City Pride March showed participants chanting “We’re coming for your children.” These examples completely undercut any denials from the LGBT𝜋 side of the debate, so in an attempt at cleanup, NBC News had its Out & Proud portal rush out to defend the cause. It faces a tough challenge, given that the call for the kids is clear and apparent on the recording, so the attempt was to explain away this problematic proof. 

To set things up properly, this component of NBC News is strictly pro-LGBT𝜋 and is not known for its objectivity. Back in March, this division reported how Ron DeSantis supposedly became enraged when he learned that a drag show had taken place in Miami and he tried to strip the hotel of its liquor license. The facts were that prior to the adult-themed holiday show the hotel was instructed that minors could not attend, and once it was learned that kids had attended the sexualized event the venue was found in violation of its license.

Now when facing rather damning evidence Out & Proud correspondent Tyler Kingkaid struggles mightily to have this provocative display reduced to a piffle of trouble. He collared the organizer of the march to address the issue and he did not do his side any favors with his explanation.

To conservative pundits, activists and lawmakers, the video confirmed the allegations they’ve levied in recent years that the LGBTQ community is “grooming” children. But to Brian Griffin, the original organizer of the NYC Drag March, if that’s the worst they heard, it’s only because he wasn’t there this year. Griffin said he chanted obscene things in the past, like “Kill, kill, kill, we’re coming to kill the mayor,” and joked about pubic hair and sex toys during marches. People at the Drag March regularly sing “God is a lesbian.”

Ummm, this does not help your cause – at all. But this is a prime case of when someone is exposing themself you get out of the way and let them keep talking.

“It’s all just words,” Griffin said. “It’s all presented to fulfill their worst stereotypes of us.” The “coming for your children” chant has been used for years at Pride events, according to longtime march attendees and gay rights activists, who said it’s one of many provocative expressions used to regain control of slurs against LGBTQ people.  

Wow, where to even begin? Saying that this “Coming for your kids” chant has been taking place for years does nothing to make it a better comment. It achieves the opposite result. Then there is the matter of the denials that have been coming from the LGBT𝜋 crowd on this topic. How can they say they are not targeting kids when participants have been calling for that very thing at events – for years?! It is all desperate deflection that manages to make the problem even worse and more evident.

Another march participant tried to dismiss this as just the ranting of a lone individual and does not represent the march or the attendees. Only there is a problem; the march organizer has just declared it was a chant that has been used at these marches annually. That cancels out the lone-wolf excuse. Then to add to this fiasco, Kingkaid attempts to turn the debate and lashes out at conservatives who have been attacking the gay community. Basically, the accusation is that those on the right have been weaponizing the evidence that supports their claims. Imagine.

Conservative politicians and pundits have increasingly referred to advocates for LGBTQ rights as “groomers,” associating people who oppose laws that restrict drag performances or classroom discussions of gender identity with pedophiles. The charge is an echo of a decades-old trope anti-gay activists have used to paint the community as a threat to the country’s youths, an allegation that some advocates say endangers LGBTQ people. 

This is amazing. We just had an organizer dismissing words as merely nothing, yet now conservatives using words are said to be a threat – within the scope of a single article. More than that, anyone using “groomer” is said to be placing gays in danger, but marchers calling out to kill the mayor are not to be regarded as anything more than jovial participants in an endearing event. Except, Kingkaid then exposes this detail about the “groomer” comments: Past marches have also included chants where the gathered people called for just that.

Photos of this year’s march show on social media people with signs reading “Groom Cisies” and “Trans, Your greatest fear, your biggest fantasy.” According to multiple Drag March regulars, the “coming for your children” variation has been used before. Last year, Gothamist reported, people at the Drag March chanted, “Ten percent is not enough: Groom! Groom! Groom!” 

Those damned conservatives, and their baseless charges that these activists are targeting children.

Then, just to add to the dismaying explanations, we get these comments of doom from the LGBT𝜋 set. “It’s really scary to us,” said Fussy Lo Mein, a drag performer and activist who declined to give their real name because of safety concerns. This goes along with the other claims that conservatives were putting gay/trans individuals in danger. All the while, these same activists say it is the people on the right who are scared. Look at how often the term “-phobic” is tossed around by those who always talk about being in fear of…something, happening.

So to summarize:

It is patently wrong to accuse anyone of targeting children, and it is equally wrong to use evidence of those calling out to target children. Any words spoken by the activists are to be dismissed and do not count, but words spoken by conservatives are a dire threat. And people on the right are said to be frightened by gays just as the LGBT𝜋 groups say they are in fear for their own safety.

This attempt by NBC News Out & Proud is a complete mess, but when you approach a story with emotional fervor and avoid objective reporting this is going to be the result. Kingkaid and NBC should step back and analyze the result when they try defending those coming for children and calling to murder a politician.