The last thing a dad said to his brother was,” I love you and I’ll call you when I get home Monday after work.”
On June 22, Pauly Likens, a 14-year-old child, went missing. On July 3, his reported criminal, 29-year-old DaShawn Watkins, was arrested after the boy’s mutilated body was found near Shenango River Lake, Pennsylvania. Pauly’s parents remembered his last phone,” It went right to phone. Everything was bad, according to what I was told.
The boy’s transgender identity is the subject of media reports on the incident, even if it was a hate crime. What needs to be addressed is the shocking pattern of grownup predatory conduct toward minors in queer female tradition.
Pauly’s parents told officers his brother told him he was spending the night at a friend’s home. Pauly apparently did go to a friend’s house but left around 9: 00 p. m., saying he was walking home. At 2: 30 a. m., Pauly posted an image on Snap of a dark street, commenting he was only out for a late-night move. He assured his companion that everything was alright.
According to police, Pauly’s mobile indicated that he was heading toward a neighborhood close to Budd Street Public Park when his phone’s battery died at 3:40 a.m. Pauly had been meeting with Watkins on Grindr, a sexual app for gay people, and they had agreed to meet. Watkins is an boldly gay man, and Pauly was beginning transgender change. Pauly is often called a woman and uses the she/her pronoun in the majority of news reports.
Activists Claim It to Be a Hate Murder
As LGBT campaigners have latched onto the situation as proof of anti-trans hate, this depth has drastically altered media reporting. Sharon City Councilman Taylor Galaska, who identifies as LGBT, said,” Pauly’s life was taken far too quickly. A stark reminder of the ongoing challenges faced by LGBTQIA + individuals”.
The Pennsylvania Youth Congress, an LGBT organization for young persons, has demanded hate-crime claims be brought against Watkins. Its media release state,” Pauly’s death has increased fear and panic among native LGBTQ community members and their families, including families of transgender children. We demand that justice be sharp and severe in the face of this vile violence. What transpired to Pauly required a great deal of hatred to be able to commit such a terrible and cruel act.
The business continues,” If not for Pauly’s personality as a transgender lady, would she have been targeted by the believe? Do the suspect have allegedly attacked her? Had the suspect have dismembered her? If Pauly were Pauly, it is doubtful that the suspect may have done it.
Adult Nouns
The media release’s main thrust is to demand that the press use feminine pronouns. The Pennsylvania Youth Congress has been violently contacting news organizations, state and federal authorities, and the Mercer County district attorney’s office to confirm Pauly is referenced as a child in all common connections.
There is a requirement that” there can be no second where she is consciously broadcast with her baby name over her chosen title to the people.” Avoiding who she was also serves as an egregious insult to her memory and teaches trans Pennsylvanians that they truly do n’t question even when they pass away.
The killer is an openly gay man, but the press release states that Pauly’s family considers the crime to be a love violence. Investigators, nevertheless, do no.
According to LGBT activists,” While it is entirely possible for an LGBTQ+ man to pin another person for their actual or perceived gay personality,” lawyers may sometimes choose to drop hate crime costs if they think it will be too difficult to prove them in court. Hate crime claims are frequently based on alleged offences based on disparaging claims.
But, no proof has been provided that the teenager was the target of the killer’s trans identity. There has n’t been any information about how he appeared on the gay sex app or how they communicated. All that is known is Watkins, a queer man, reportedly arranged to meet a 14-year-old child in a public garden around 3: 00 a. m., sexually assaulted, and therefore cruelly murdered the child.
As their public statements show, Transgender activists are less involved with the crime itself, but rather are focused on making the media use appropriate pronouns and spreading the false narrative that trans people are being targeted for assault because of anti-LGBT dislike.
Gay Sexual Apps for Minors
In 2021, National Public Radio ( NPR ) sat down with several LGBT activists, including Jack Turban, a prominent activist for transgender-identifying youth who specializes in LGBT psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. One teenager recalls first utilizing the gay sex software Grindr at the age of 13. Another argued that because they do n’t have other online spaces to make friends, LGBT teens use Grindr to make friends.
” But often they meet older people who are harmful, leading to sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking”, says NPR’s Jenifer McKim. According to McKim, who cites an analysis by the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting, “more than 100 people have been charged in the United States with sexual assault or attempted sex with minors for sex on Grindr” as of 2015.
Describing adolescents ending up in disaster areas, implying self-harm, Turban said,” They’ve reached a breaking point that the situation with this child sexually exploiting them is overwhelming”. He does this, however, by making sure the market does n’t believe he is making up a “homophobic myth” by making the case that gay people are more aggressive than homosexuals.
Turban points out that despite this concern,” there are possible hundreds of thousands of minors global using Grindr and related apps, and families and professionals have to talk to them about how to defend themselves online. People who abuse children should be held responsible, but adult-only apps should do more to limit access.”
The panelist, who was 13 when he first downloaded the app, recalls a 60-year-old man sexually assaulting him after meeting him, and plans to use it for sex work later. NPR reports:” He did n’t see himself as a victim. Instead, he blamed himself”.
Grindr is also at fault for knowing that this is happening and doing nothing about it, Turban adds. Therefore, I believe it is crucial to engage in discussions about public policy and legislation to alter the current situation.
Adult Gays Seeking Out Minors
However, none of the interviewees seem interested in bringing up the issue of the adult gay men allegedly abusing the 14-year-old victim on the app and seeking out minors in sexual activity. In the same way, many LGBT activist organizations refuse to even acknowledge that the alleged killer of this victim was a gay man. They all appear to be more concerned with preserving the reputation of LGBT people and spreading the false narrative of anti-LGBT hate and violence.
Teenage boys are not conversing with other teens on Grindr. They are speaking with mature men. Why wo n’t LGBT activists talk about this? Although it is thought that hundreds of thousands of teenagers are using these sex apps, only 100 charges have been made in the last ten years. Not just adult app security or online safety concerns, though. Additionally, it is n’t a question of anti-LGBT bias or the lack of LGBT gatherings for teenagers to make friends.
There is a surprisingly perplexing trend of adult predatory behavior toward minors in gay male culture, and nothing will stop until LGBT activists acknowledge this and take steps to stop it.
Chad Felix Greene is a senior contributor to The Federalist. He is the author of” Surviving Gender: My Journey Through Gender Dysphoria”, and is a social writer focusing on truth in media, conservative ideas and goals, and true equality under the law. You can follow him on Twitter @chadfelixg.
