Reddit Cracks Down On Usage Of 'Groomer' As A Slur, Pressure Mounts On Twitter To Do The Same

It appears Reddit is cracking down on the use of the word groomer as a slur against the LGBTQ+ community, a trend that's been on the rise in recent months.

Last Wednesday, the subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes made an announcement alerting its userbase that Reddit admins had warned the subreddit about the usage of several terms and violations of Reddit's policies against hate speech. Among several points reminding subreddit users to not post racial slurs, tell others to kill themselves or deny genocides, two points stood out:

No portraying LGBT people as a whole as “groomers” or “pedophiles”, calling them a slur, or deadnaming them
No portraying being transgender as a mental illness, and no more saying that “trans men will never be real men” or “trans women will never be real women”, or intentionally misgendering them.

This was picked up by the subreddit /r/AgainstHateSubreddits, who interpreted the post to mean that Reddit has made it a policy that usage of "groomer" is a slur that violates Rule 1 of Reddit prohibiting hatred towards another based on their identity.

Reddit will now enforce their hate speech policy on content that utilizes the groomer libel. Content that equates LGBTQ people to groomers and pedophiles will violate the hate speech policy. Reddit is now more proactive than Twitter. Your move @TwitterSafety. pic.twitter.com/GhGuBF1KjK

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) July 15, 2022

"Grooming" is a term used to describe a person who fosters a romantic but nonsexual relationship with a minor with the goal of making the relationship sexual when they come of legal age. It has become a weapon for some conservative supporters of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" Bill, who have attempted to argue that teachers educating students about the existence of queer people amounts to "grooming" them, painting the teachers as pedophiles.

As news of Reddit's enforcement spread on social media, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok confirmed with the Daily Dot that usage of "groomer" to debase LGBTQ people goes against company policy. Twitter, however, has so far allowed for the term to be used that way and faced increased pressure to update their policies against hate speech.

NEW: Reddit and TikTok, along with Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, have all confirmed that slandering LGBTQ people as groomers with no evidence violate those platform's rules against targeted harassment. @Twitter – what are you doing? pic.twitter.com/VrAUJkTGkp

— Ari Drennen 🏳️‍🌈 (@AriDrennen) July 20, 2022

Top tier move by Reddit.

Twitter needs to follow suit. The “groomer” slur against lgbtq people has got to stop.

Deplatform Libs of TikTok. https://t.co/74PlxQ4aN1

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 15, 2022

Teachers in Texas being shot at for handing out books with LGBTQ characters at Pride. Librarians in Iowa being threatened to the point where the entire staff quits, closing the library. What will it take for @TwitterSafety to stop "groomer" libel? https://t.co/7EJc0Gtu11

— Mary Emily O'Hara (@MaryEmilyOHara) July 20, 2022

The pressure enraged some conservatives on the app, many of whom continued to insist that teaching children about queer people amounted to "grooming" them.

The LGBTQ community has been the target of increased hatred and violence as of late. In June, coinciding with Pride Month, the FBI stopped a planned riot in Idaho from armed anti-Pride protestors. The same week, a book reading hosted by a drag queen in Alabama was interrupted by protestors, one of whom wore a shirt that said "kill your local pedophile."