For LGBTQ+ employees at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, what used to be a haven now feels like a nightmare — and it only took one fearmongering rallying cry from a parent.
In a Facebook post from March 9, Clay Yarbrough, the father of a child enrolled at Space Camp, urged parents to pull their children from the program and started a smear campaign against a camp counselor named Molly Bowman.
Why? Because she’s trans.
As a bisexual woman who has struggled with her identity for years, I’m pretty tired of rhetoric that not only makes queer people question our own worth, but frequently makes us, especially members of the trans community, feel unsafe. As I watched all of this play out in the news, I knew I had to get the story from those who hadn’t yet been included in the conversation.
Though the post included no evidence or credible allegations of wrongdoing on Bowman’s part, the crux of Yarbrough’s argument hinged on the idea that Bowman could do something wrong — a possibility that, of course, isn’t exclusive to the LGBTQ+ community.
Yarbrough misgendered and used slurs against Bowman online, his post amassing comments that made unfounded accusations that she and the rest of the LGBTQ+ counselors had behaved inappropriately. The group dissected Bowman’s personal social media pages, and even her Amazon wish list, in their attempts to pull something from nothing.
Yarbrough’s post blew up with over 6,000 shares, garnering the attention of right-wing groups and politicians. Moms For Liberty Alabama tweeted Yarbrough’s Facebook post with the comment: “Do not send your children to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. The entire program has gone woke! Girls as young as 7 attend Space Camp and this is what they are exposed to! Protect your kids!!!!”
Given that the age range for the camp begins at 9, the group was already off to a rocky start.
Meanwhile, the right-wing account Libs of TikTok misgendered Bowman and repeated the baseless claim that Bowman “went into the girl’s showers while they were changing.”
Bowman’s supporters began researching Yarbrough. Commenters on his Facebook post raised questions about Yarbrough’s own alleged criminal past, which he dismissed on March 11 as irrelevant. After the backlash, Yarbrough wrote on Facebook: “Oh and because I have a mug shot on the internet and have been arrested before then I am a axe murdered with 12 criminal records, in a place I haven’t been since I was 23,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Education…