The Club Q shooting has brought the prejudice and violence that many LGBTQ+ people in America and around the world face into a sharper focus. The tragic events received a lot of attention on social media from LGBTQ+ people, allies, and anti-LGBTQ+ extremists.

Predictably, anti-LGBT campaigners have used the shooting to both blame the victims of the shooting and make sweeping statements about the community as a whole. While it’s not a new phenomenon, there has been a rise in the rhetoric around LGBTQ+ people being ‘groomers’ and associating queer sexualities and identities with child abuse.