You might think the claim that California has legalized pedophilia wouldnât pass the smell test with most people. Not in 2020, when certain Republican politicians have seized on the passage of a law regarding sex offenders as an opportunity to rally QAnon believers, a growing and active group of conspiracy theorists.
First, a little back story.
Think about high school: not all teen sex is pedophilia. Today, the average American loses their virginity around the age of 17. So California law provides for judicial review of certain cases as a backstop to overzealous prosecutors keen to put someone on a sex offender registry who likely shouldnât be there â like an 18 year old caught having consensual sex with a 16 year old.
But the penal code, which dates back to 1944, included only vaginal sex. Senate Bill 145, signed into law last week, extends the backstop  to other forms of sex, like that between homosexual or transgender individuals. The new law does not legalize statutory rape.
“It is a righteous bill,” said its author, state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco. “It is supported by civil rights organizations and law enforcement and sexual assault survivor organizations. And itâs a bill that will address an inequity that is destroying the lives of LGBTQ people.”
The bill was sponsored by the Los Angeles County district attorneyâs office. Nonetheless, there were state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who expressed concern the bill could make it easier for someone committing statutory rape to get away with it or face fewer consequences.
State Senate Minority Leader Sen. Shannon Grove, who represents parts of the Central Valley and High Desert, posted a series of tweets earlier this month that both politicized the bill and digitally winked at QAnon believers with the hashtag #SaveOurChildren.
I voted NO on #SB145 because it is the right thing to do.
Urge the Governor to veto this disgusting proposed law & #SaveOurChildren.
Governor Gavin Newsom1303 10th Street, Suite 1173Sacramento, CA 95814Phone: (916) 445-2841https://t.co/TG1or7Nryb #CALeg
— Senator Shannon Grove (@ShannonGroveCA) September 2, 2020
Pedophilia is a triggering concept to anyone that believes in QAnon, a loose collection of theories clustered around the basic premise that President Donald Trump is trying to save the nation from an elite ring of Satanist pedophiles, many of whom are in positions of power like government. Grove was hardly the only Republican to take advantage of this fact.
Theyâre normalizing pedophelia. Itâs not just Hollywood and Netflix. This is now becoming mainstream Democrat groupthink. Itâs insanity and we must stop it. https://t.co/NPHTw4829v
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 14, 2020
Wiener quickly found himself on the receiving end of a wave of angry tweets, Instagram messages, death threats, doxxing (digital publication of his home address and similar information) and insulting memes.
“Democrats, liberals, anyone who disagrees with them, they proclaim a pedophile,” said Wiener.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has been receiving death threats for his legislation, Senate Bill 145, which has been mischaracterized as an attempt to legalize some forms of pedophilia in California. (Courtesy of Scott Wiener)
“The people who are spreading misinformation, people who are obsessed with fake conspiracy theories, theyâre the ones with no boundaries. They donât care. Theyâll say anything about anyone,” said Wiener, who estimates he’s received more than 500 death threats since he introduced SB 145.
Wiener said one person threatened to decapitate him and send his head to his mother. Wiener said he informed law enforcement and contacted Instagram and Facebook to take down offending posts and accounts, but to little effect. Hate speech policing is a game of whack-a-mole, and in recent weeks, the threats have moved to Reddit.
TRIGGER WARNING: Iâm attaching screenshots of some of the messages & comments on Instagram Iâve received from the QAnon/anti-vax right. They range from death threats: pic.twitter.com/9w2lMJIFzk
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) August 6, 2020
For that matter, fact-checking misinformation is also a game of whack-a-mole. Those likely to read a correction of the public discourse in Reuters are unlikely to be the same people sharing or otherwise reacting to vitriolic attacks on social media platforms.
“An elected official â itâs sort of part and parcel of the job to be subjected to some form of critique. But severe harassment, threats of violence, death threats â in American society, thatâs not something that we should learn to tolerate and accept,” said Seth Brysk, a regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, which closely follows all types of hate speech.
Brysk says Wiener would be a target of QAnon even if he weren’t a gay, Jewish Democrat running for reelection in San Francisco. Even though all of that figures in to the sorts of heinous language and imagery aimed at Wiener online.
The larger problem, Brysk says, is the normalization of violence in political discourse.
Wiener isn’t the first California lawmaker to find himself the target of weaponized misinformation. State Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento was attacked by anti-vaxxers who resent his efforts to tighten vaccination mandates in recent years. Pan didnât back down, and Wiener says he wonât either.
Copyright 2020 KQED