Michigan state senator MalloryMcMorrow has become a beacon for beleaguered liberals struggling with the right’s latest moral panic over equality for LGBTQ+ people — especially trans children. She spoke with onesarahjones about her viral speech
Photo: Sylvia Jarrus Mallory McMorrow was bathing her 1-year-old daughter, Noa, at home when she decided she had to make a public stand. Her Republican colleague in the Michigan state senate, Lana Theis, had sent out a fundraising email earlier that same day accusing McMorrow of being a “groomer” and a progressive social-media troll who sexualized children. “I had a little chair next to the tub where I could plunk my daughter down while I was filling it with water,” McMorrow remembers.
Following the lead of conservative activists, Republicans have accused liberals of “grooming” children through the teaching of sex education or books that reference LGBTQ+ themes. To deviate even slightly from white heterosexuality is to become a target. That dynamic isn’t new; the grievances of the right wing have remained static over time. Conservatives have falsely linked members of the LGBTQ+ community to pedophilia for as long as the community has been fighting for equal rights.
McMorrow says it’s “sickening” to her, “as somebody who grew up Catholic, was very active in the church, went to Notre Dame, and looks at people like Father Hesburgh with such high regard for how you can use faith in community through works,” that “Christianity and faith have been weaponized to hurt people.” The Catholic Church, she has observed, has its own ugly history with grooming.
After she won, McMorrow got an early taste of attacks to come. A publication for Notre Dame women covered her victory, and she recalls there being blowback because of her faith. “Oh, you know, ‘She’s pro-choice. You couldn’t find somebody who’s an actual Catholic?’” she remembers hearing. “There’s that flip side of it, but it’s no less of who I am.
Hate and prejudice aren’t mere rhetorical flourishes. They have material consequences for the communities they marginalize. People of color and trans people, for example, are much more likely to live in poverty than their white or cisgender peers. “So I think my hope is to call a lie a lie and hate hate,” McMorrow says.
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