Arizona Dept. of Education Attacked Over Resources for LGBTQ+ Students
Conservatives are railing against Arizona's Department of Education for providing resources for LGBTQ+ students.In their latest attack, right-wing activists point to the state education department's website, claiming that LGBTQ+ people groom children for sexual exploitation.The department provides dozens of links to local and national resources for LGBTQ+ students, educators, and families in its resources section.
In addition, there are two chat rooms, Gender Spectrum and Q Chat Space, where young people can interact with one another and with trained moderators to discuss essential matters to that particular community.It's here where conservatives have sought to make something harmless sound nefarious.
As part of CenterLink's Q Chat Space initiative, young people can join scheduled conversations on various topics. In addition, the website has a quick exit option at the bottom of the page, which allows the user to click on it and be taken to a Google search page right away to protect themselves from prying eyes.Conservatives point to this as an example of grooming.
Because the children do not need parental permission to use the website and the website allows them to change to another web page quickly, they say adults with ill will who interact with these children could take advantage of them sexually.On Twitter, the user @LibsOfTikTok, who promotes anti-LGBTQ+ content constantly to more than 1.2 million followers, amplified the outrage over Arizona's education department resources, sparking online calls for the resignation of the state superintendent, Democrat Kathy Hoffman.To The Advocate's request for comment, Hoffman says that it is appropriate and necessary for the Education Department's website to provide information.
