Glenn Greenwald is currently taking heat on Twitter after he suggested that Matt Gaetz is legally entitled to have sex with whatever “consenting” 17-year-old girl he pleases.
As you’ve likely heard by now, the Florida lawmaker is currently ensnared in a teen sex/prostitution scandal involving a 17-year-old girl and $900 transferred on Venmo to an accused child sex trafficker who is currently sitting in a jail cell.
None of Gaetz’s Republican colleagues are sticking up for him, except for Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan, who is currently ensnared in his own college wrestling gay sex abuse scandal. And even Fox News wants nothing to do with Gaetz.
But for whatever reason, Greenwald, who is openly gay, has decided to come to the antigay congressman’s defense.
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“If you don’t think it should be legal for 17 year-olds to have sex with anyone they want, go write to the governors and legislatures in 37 states & the District of Columbia which made it legal,” Greenwald recently tweeted while defending Gaetz.
There’s just one teeny tiny problem with this. And by “one teeny tiny problem” we mean a glaring omission of some pretty important details about age of consent laws.
Raw Story notes:
[Greenwald] failed to note that many states that allow 16 or 17 year olds to have sex require that both consenting partners be of similar ages. For example, Virginia has a close in age exemption that allows teens between 15-17 to have sex with each other. At age 38, Gaetz could not legally have sex with a 17-year-old girl in Virginia because the de facto age of consent is 18 years old.
Another important detail Greenwald neglected to mention is that the age of consent in Florida is 18, meaning a 38-year-old man having sex with a 17-year-old girl would be considered statutory rape under state law.
In a followup tweet, a defiant Greenwald wrote, “I think consenting adults should be able to do what they want in their private lives and those who try to control them or restrict their choices or impose judgments on moral grounds are creepy sexual morality police similar to the Moral Majority & Pat Robertson of the 1980s.”
And we would tend to agree. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with consenting adults having sex with one another. It happens all the time, and sex is a beautiful thing. The problem is, in Gaetz’s case, that doesn’t appear to be what happened.
Also missing from Greenwald’s defense of Gaetz was any mention of the sex trafficking accusations being made against him or the allegations of illegal drug use.
Gaetz insists he is not guilty of any wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of a $25 million extortion plot.
Here’s what folx on Twitter are saying about Greenwald’s deeply flawed defense of Gaetz…
i've moved past arguing with or about glenn greenwald and now just kind of marvel at how determined he is to stumble into and then vociferously defend as many unforced errors as possible
— Lauren L Walker (@ActNormalOrElse) April 12, 2021
Age of consent laws do more harm than good.
by Glenn Greenwald
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) April 12, 2021
And yet pic.twitter.com/KQc3wx09st
— Miguel (@The_One_Lopez) April 12, 2021
People defending Matt Gaetz:
– Marjorie Taylor Greene
– Jim Jordan
– Alan Dershowitz
– Glenn Greenwald— *you're (@RKJ65) April 12, 2021
Wow I thought they were kidding when they said Glenn Greenwald is actively defending having sex with teenagers
— Goat Chompsky Official ™? (@ChompskyGoat) April 12, 2021
How never liking Glenn Greenwald has been paying off recently. pic.twitter.com/iadqXcufwv
— aaron (@therealaaronk) April 12, 2021
And crossing state lines makes this "it's legal in 37 states" logic completely nonsensical.
— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) April 12, 2021
I’m glad someone’s finally brave enough to defend politicians
— Having Fun Online (@centralbanksuck) April 11, 2021
just scrolling through some jokes and occasionally seeing Glenn Greenwald defending the ability to fuck a 17 year old
— charlie kirk’s black nephew (@farnerbocken) April 12, 2021
Sex work is fine. Sex trafficking of a minor is not.
That wasn’t difficult to reconcile at all, you fucking weirdo.
— Colin Fesser (@MrFesser) April 12, 2021
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
humble charlie
The age problem is a gray area in some places, but it is NOT in sex trafficking a minor.
BaltoSteve
Transporting a 17 yo minor from an area where it is illegal have sex with that child to one where it is perfectly fine to bang a 17 yo would be sex trafficking of a minor. That transportation makes it trafficking. Much like paying to have a woman to be transported across state lines to just have sex with her is sex trafficking.
Tombear
If you or I had sex with an underage boy there would be Hell to pay. I guess it doesn’t work that way for a congressman and an underage girl?
cuteguy
I thought the GQP was the party of traditional family values? What tradition puts minors in sexual danger. Oh wait, Catholics.
djhavyk
Well, I guess now we know what skeletons are in Glenn Greenwald’s closet…….that’s gonna be a good look when they come out.
arnieca
this comment doesn’t apply to either of the deplorables G’s, Greenwald or Gaetz. But regarding age differences, it was very common in gay culture for young guys to hook up w/older guys. i wasn’t consciously looking for a father figure when i did so, but like a lot of gay boys, i was rejected by my dad for not being ‘manly’ enough. the idea that my older hookups were molesters when i was 17, but legal when i was 18 is nonsense.
Had i forgone all those experiences when i was a teen, i would have missed out on a lot, and been a very lonely boy.
MacAdvisor
The flaw in the argument here is Graham Gremore, not Glenn Greenwald’s. Greenwald is right, what happened was not statutory rape. It was consensual sex under the laws of the jurisdiction where it happened. If, as is the case, the interaction is legal, then it is not, by definition, statutory rape. Moreover, the Mann Act is a dubious piece of legislation that makes women unthinking chattel. It should long ago be repealed (before you all attack, the Mann Act doesn’t outlaw sex trafficking, it outlaws women, not men, travelling across state lines to have sex, whether or not they consent. It is simply far too broad in its application.) There are plenty of sex trafficking laws on the books and Gaetz may well be guilty. He is a sleazeball of the highest order, that is certain, but proving statutory rape is another issue all together.
Ronbo
Yes.
Ronbo
Graham Gremore and Raw Story continue their attacks against gay men. (Remember their unfounded attacks against Alex Morse – that caused his election loss?)
ricdardc1
The Bachelorette COLTON, Just came Out as Gay, The audiences says We already Knew That ! YAWN !!! so now we know Next seasons Bachelorette !
BoomerMyles
Glenn Quagmire Greenwald is a despicable “libertarian” coward.
He was virulently bashing President Obama because deep down he knew Obama was a decent man and Glenn wasn’t afraid of repercussions.
Yet GW Bush and Trump did worse things with drone strikes and assaults on civil liberties but Glenn was too chicken sh*t to criticize them.
inbama
Glenn loves his Putin.