We have written a ton of posts about Loudon County, Virginia, where the school board seems to consider every parent the enemy and school officials keep lists of problematic moms and dads. There was outrage that a school district had kept quiet about the rape of a girl in a girls' restroom by a boy in a skirt. The New York Times has decided to revisit the incident to see if right-wingers just used the explosive allegation as a cudgel against transgender rights. No, seriously.
Benjamin Ryan is a New York Times contributor but did not write this piece:
How conservatives leveraged a sexual assault committed by a skirt-wearing boy in a girl's bathroom at a public school in Virginia as fodder for culture war victories, despite the fact that the boy was not trans and the skirt was incidental to the case.https://t.co/UZNVHEdqLc
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) August 5, 2023
Of course, the boy wasn't trans. His sexually assaulting a girl kind of gave that away. But it did bring us questions about allowing biological males in girls' restrooms. Apparently bringing that up was "leveraging a sexual assault."
Among those conservatives who got the case about the skirt-wearing, cisgender sexual assailant boy wrong was the Daily Wire's @MattWalshBlog. To gain the legal right to speak at a Loudon County, VA, school board meeting, Walsh rented an apartment in the county and said:… pic.twitter.com/DSRv8EYe9w
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) August 5, 2023
Ah, Republicans pounced! This isn't about the girl being raped in a bathroom … it's about Republicans using that as fodder for their fight against transexual rights.
Cue droves of people who have not read this article weighing in, considering themselves the singular experts on this case.
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) August 5, 2023
Nah, we'll read it. Here's the school board meeting that probably triggered the letter to Attorney Merrick Garland about parents at school board meetings being "domestic terrorists":
“That meeting,” Beth Barts, a member of the school board at the time, later recalled, “just went to hell.” During the public-comment period, a Republican former state legislator accused the board of “teaching children to hate others because of their skin color” and “forcing them to lie about other kids’ gender.”
When the crowd, which had been warned against disruptions, cheered, the board voted to end public comment. The crowd booed loudly. A man in the third row stood and extended both middle fingers at the board members, who were hastily ushered into a secure back room.
Scanning the scene for signs of trouble, a sheriff’s deputy named Timothy Iversen saw a middle-aged man in a plumbing-company T-shirt arguing over a row of chairs with a woman wearing a top emblazoned with a rainbow heart. “You’re a bitch,” the man said, clenching his fist.
Iversen grabbed him by the arm, but he resisted. Another deputy rushed in, and the two officers tackled the man, crashing through chairs. The second deputy punched him several times. A third knelt on his back. Pinned beneath the deputies, the man screamed that he couldn’t breathe. His mouth was smeared with blood. The man’s wife stood nearby. “My child was raped at school!” she shouted. “And this is what happens!”
OK, so one man gave the school board the finger, and the father of the girl who was raped clenched his fist.
Are Ryan and the New York Times really doing this?
Maybe the problem was the assault. Not people noticing the assault. https://t.co/ns2zCUJ6Nu
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 5, 2023
BREAKING: Republicans Notice https://t.co/YuKiIPBbzI
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) August 5, 2023
This is just vile. No matter how much you despise the mainstream media, it is not nearly enough. Trust me https://t.co/4Yu0kxJFrX
— Obi_1_D_AllKnowing (@obiopiah) August 5, 2023
How dare conservatives notice when boy rapes a girl in a girls bathroom, and the school board covers it up https://t.co/fg59iN8FCt
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) August 5, 2023
For the record, this is the same guy who tried to blame the Nashville shooting on @MattWalshBlog and the Daily Wire https://t.co/fg59iN8FCt
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) August 5, 2023
Good thing the FBI has cleared that up.
Journalism is when you say conservatives are the problem and not, you know, the rape that occured https://t.co/GAOpo3WlfD
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 5, 2023
The complaint is that trans bathroom rules makes it easier for these assaults to happen, whether the aggressor is trans or not, which coincidentally is why the school board tried to bury the assault. https://t.co/frUkpADqLu
— Boo (@IzaBooboo) August 5, 2023
He wasn’t trans. He just liked to dress like a girl and abuse bathroom rules meant to allow boys to go into girls’ bathrooms.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 5, 2023
Thanks for the distinction. https://t.co/Q0fLDUnd0n
He’s straight up being a child rape apologist because conservatives don’t want boys showering with girls and they noticed a rape was being covered up by the school
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) August 5, 2023
You think the media can’t sink lower but they definitely can https://t.co/UcRmlHvnJs
"It also suggested a chronic problem of liberal social activism, which invests great energy in demanding that people think more about race, gender and sexuality but cannot control how they think about it."
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) August 5, 2023
That's what they're most upset about. https://t.co/ZdGL2A0Mdf
“Leveraged a sexual assault”
— Vanessa (@Nessakins_) August 5, 2023
Holy shit, my guy. https://t.co/rBP1QRteSs
The journalistic outrage over the 'conservative pouncing' but not the rape itself is incredibly telling https://t.co/fdXehnenVe
— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) August 5, 2023
Translation: Staff, parents and students must “affirm” a students chosen gender or student “could die.”
— Rhyen Staley (@DunedainRanger9) August 5, 2023
Unless said student commits a crime(s), then that “boy was not trans and the skirt was incidental to the case.” https://t.co/q0QnGyhXQq
Imagine being this guy https://t.co/BKIvBluMmy pic.twitter.com/URpVTs8U31
— Dan Cotter (@TheDanCotter) August 5, 2023
Oh yeah, we did a post on him linking The Daily Wire to the Covenant School massacre. They both happened in Nashville, so …
The worst part is that this jackass is not an outlier. He’s a perfect example of the rot that is mainstream “journalism” https://t.co/NlCnCbbQLg pic.twitter.com/9NjIpwXP6j
— The Other Mike Roy (@theothermikeroy) August 5, 2023
He's seriously backing up the New York Times in its "Republicans pounced" on a rape in a girls' bathroom take. You really can't hate mainstream journalists enough.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member