State Senator Scott Wiener has come under fire by right-wing trolls, who have flooded his inbox with death threats and anti-Semitic messages. The reason: Wiener has sponsored a new bill to protect queer teens in the criminal justice system.
Under current California law, a judge has the right to block a teenager from having to register as a sex offender under certain circumstances. For example, a 19-year-old having consensual sex with a 17-year-old may not have to register. The caveat: the current statue applies only to vaginal sex, not oral or anal intercourse, thus making it discriminatory to LGBTQ teens. Wiener’s new bill would extend the statute to include all forms of sex, thus granting equal protection to queer teenagers.
Right-wing extremists have now targeted Wiener over the bill, claiming that it would grant legal protections to pedophiles. Mother Jones reports that the Senator has received thousands of messages, mostly on Instagram, threatening his life and safety, as well as accusing him of pedophilia.
“You’re dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. I’ll publicly execute you. I’m gonna embarrass you. Pedophile,” one message read.
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“I’ll come cut your head off and deliver it to your mom if you even considering introducing your ‘bill.’ Got it?” read another.
Thus far Wiener has refused to block any of his harassers, noting that as a public official, it is illegal for him to cut off voices of his constituents by blocking accounts, not matter how vile. The Senator has, however, criticized Facebook–the company that owns Instagram–for not doing more to weed out troll accounts.
“Social media platforms need to do a lot more to deal with toxicity that is so damaging to society,” Wiener told Mother Jones. I know it’s hard. I get that they don’t want to be thought police. Not everything is clear cut, but some things are. What’s happening here is clear cut, when you have all these comments calling me a pedophile, when you have all these homophobic, anti-Semitic remarks.”
Wiener’s detractors have falsely claimed that his legislation would allow 20-somethings to have sex with 12-year-olds; the current statute does not apply to teens younger than 14. Furthermore, Wiener’s staff has traced a number of the harassing messages to accounts which have ties to QAnon, the right-wing conspiracy site. QAnon has a history of pushing pedophile-themed conspiracy theories, including the notorious “Pizzagate” myth which linked Hillary Clinton to an underground pedophile ring.
For Wiener, the greater threat is not to himself, but to American democracy. “Whether its QAnon or Russian troll farms,” Wiener says, “these are factories of false info designed to undermine democracy and public discourse. And also to send a message to elected officials that if you pursue unpopular progressive change to help marginalized groups like queer kids, ‘We’re going to target you.’”
funpitt412
California bill SB145 is crazy and would allow someone ten years older to have sex with a minor. So if you are 24, you could have sex with a 14-year old and not have to register as a sex offender. That is sick! Scott Wiener (a Democrat and we all know the other convected pedophile politician with that last name) introduced legislation to end discrimination against LGBT people regarding sex offender registration. He is not alone because former San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is another Democrat Pedophile that wants this bill passed.
As a gay man, I do not want to see this bill past.
Kevan1
@fruitepit412 the pit part is right in your username. Misinformation from a troll.
boymikefl
You only support (alleged) pedophiles like Donald Trump & Jeffery Epstein. Got it.
Kangol2
Wiener is not the same last name (Anthony) Weiner, but then you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?
GayEGO
Sadly, we have gay Trumpsters who do not understand what they are reading, like Trump with “Yo Semite” and “Thigh Land”.
ShiningSex
Ignorant people will always exist sadly.
ThinkPIease
We can have sex with kids soon in California and not go to jail.
HDTex
I’ll need to move to CA!
funpitt412
You are confusing President Bill Clinton with President Trump. Bill Clinton spent time on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘orgy island.’ If you support this bill list your real name below.
Kangol2
Donald Trump in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years….Terrific guy….He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Jeffrey Epstein bragged he introduced Donald and Melania Trump. He was quite proud about this.
In Jeffrey Epstein’s phonebook, he had 16 different ways to contact Donald the Con Man Trump. He also had #s for Melania Trump, Robert Trump, Blaine Trump, Ivana Trump and Ivanka Trump too.
Donald Trump in 2020: “I just wish her [Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girlfriend, [alleged] pimp and co-child abuser] well, frankly….I’ve met her numerous times over the years….I just wish her well, whatever it is.”
Also, 20+ women have accused Don the Con, who admitted on tape to sexual assault against women, of rape, sexual assault, forcible kissing, etc. And a woman also filed 2 lawsuits accusing Don the Con of raping her when she was 13-years-old, so….
Vince
This is just another romeo and juliet law. That way you don’t find some 18 yo having to register as a sex offender with having sex with his 16 yo partner. I would’ve preferred the cut off to be 16 though.
funpitt412
Then why is this bill listed at ten years and not two years? Why the need for 10 years?
G-Man
I agree I think they need to raise the age to at least 16.
amanwithanedge
funpitt412: what kind of republican hole did you crawl out of??
funpitt412
Kangol2,
The logs showed Clinton took at least 26 flights aboard financier Jeffrey Epstein’s Boeing 727 jet. The former president took at least five of those flights without his Secret Service detail. Trump was never on his plane or on his island.
Bill Clinton is a rapist! Trump slept with 2 porn stars and both stated they were no raped.
Are you voting for Biden the sniffer who has been accused of attempted rape?
Kangol2
Don the Con is a rapist! 20+ women have accused him of rape, sexual assault, forcible kissing, and groping, in addition to the two porn stars he slept with! Did you fall down a hole and forget all of the alleged sexual assaults Don the Con committed or are you just being willfully obtuse?
Do you know Don the Con was “never on his island”? For sure? He sure in the hell doesn’t want Ghislaine Maxwell to talk, that’s for sure!
But then you’re going to vote heartily for Don the Con, one of whose rape victims, E. Jean Carroll, just learned he cannot avoid her much longer! She kept the skirt with his spoo all over it, so you should write Don the Con and tell him to submit to a DNA test! She isn’t the only woman who’s accused of him rape! Are you going to vote for him, Funpitt?
Chris
Yeah, this is a bit much.
ThinkPIease
Jean Carroll is a crazy woman, and she was fired from Elle magazine in 2019 because they knew she was lying. Have you ever been to Bergdorf Goodman? The salespeople that work at Bregorfs are on commission. If Donald Trump were in the store, everyone would know and be trying to catch his attention to sell him something, not to mention all the tourists asking for his autograph. The salespeople keep a constant eye on the dressings rooms because of shoplifting. There are also security cameras everywhere in the store. Jean Carroll is just trying to have her 15 minutes of fame. If her story were true, Elle magazine would have never fired her. Have you watched the interview she did with Anderson Cooper? Even Anderson did not believe her.