NBC News published a story about the recent pride march in New York City that featured people chanting "We're coming for your children" and tried their best to say that the chant was actually taken out of context and they were doing it ironically.
"We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children," could be heard multiple times.
NYC Drag Marchers chant “we’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children” https://t.co/ucK1qM4fv5 pic.twitter.com/OhBguhWwZY
— Timcast News (@TimcastNews) June 24, 2023
Despite video evidence of the moment at the march, NBC News says "it’s not clear whose, or whether the speaker was a member of the LGBTQ community":
To conservative pundits, activists and lawmakers, the video confirmed the allegations they’ve levied in recent years that the LGBTQ community is 'grooming' children. But to Brian Griffin, the original organizer of the NYC Drag March, if that’s the worst they heard, it’s only because he wasn’t there this year.
Griffin said he chanted obscene things in the past, like 'Kill, kill, kill, we’re coming to kill the mayor,' and joked about pubic hair and sex toys during marches. People at the Drag March regularly sing 'God is a lesbian.'
'It’s all just words,' Griffin said. 'It’s all presented to fulfill their worst stereotypes of us.'
NBC News further downplayed the chant because, well, it has been said at marches for years:
The 'coming for your children' chant has been used for years at Pride events, according to longtime march attendees and gay rights activists, who said it’s one of many provocative expressions used to regain control of slurs against LGBTQ people. And in this case, they said, right-wing activists are jumping on a single video to weaponize an out-of-context remark to further stigmatize the queer community.
NBC News' article was hit was a Community Note on Twitter, which stated, "'Coming for your children' is not a historical part of Pride. The chant appears to originate from the San Francisco Gay Men's choir singing a song with this title 2 years ago, in 2021. This article is thus a misrepresentation of Pride's history."
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