Gays Against Groomers (GAG) is an American far-right and anti-LGBT organization known for campaigning against gender-affirming care for minors, protesting school curriculum content with LGBT themes, and criticizing Drag Queen Story Hour events.
GAG began in June 2022 as a Twitter account created by Jaimee Michell, who had previously been employed by right-wing communications firms Arsenal Media and X Strategies and posted similar content on her personal account. The account is known for posting anti-trans rhetoric and has been compared to Libs of TikTok. Michell filed incorporation papers for GAG in September 2022. GAG has been banned from multiple social media and payment platforms for violating rules on hate speech; the group has been promoted by right-wing media outlets such as Fox News, One America News Network (OANN), and InfoWars.
A spokesperson for the LGBT advocacy group GLAAD has claimed that the group uses the slur "groomer" along with ambiguous messaging to perpetuate the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory. GAG helped organize an anti-LGBTQ rally in Florida that was attended by other far-right and anti-LGBTQ organizations such as Moms for Liberty and the Proud Boys.
History
GAG was founded by Jaimee Michell, at the time a content creator and lead designer at marketing company Arsenal Media, a conservative media organization specializing in creating viral content. Before the creation of the Gays Against Groomers account, Michell had a history of sharing far-right content across multiple platforms on personal social media accounts. Michell's website featured examples of her work for conservative candidates and activists. Michell had previously served on the advisory board of Donald Trump's "Trump Pride coalition" and described Trump as a "pro-gay" politician. Leading up to the 2020 United States presidential election, Michell was involved in the "Stop the Steal" movement.
GAG's Instagram account was created by Michell on June 6, 2022. The Twitter account described GAG as a "coalition of gays against the sexualization and indoctrination of children", with the purpose "to protect children from harm being done in our name and by those who have hijacked our community". The Twitter account gained 90,000 followers in a few months. In September 2022, Michell filed incorporation papers for GAG. The group also launched a partner coalition called Trans Against Groomers. Michell has denied that anyone is funding the account. GAG's application for tax exemption as a 501(c)(4) non-profit was approved in March 2023.
By August 2022, Twitter had suspended and reinstated the social media account four times. Before Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the website's rules prohibited the use of "groomer" as an insult based on gender identity or expression under their hate speech policy. GAG responded by using code terms such as "broomer" and "gr__mer" and changing its screen name to "Gays Against Grewmers".
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, GAG reverted to its old name and tweeted "OK GROOMER". The group also purchased a verified badge. In October 2022, the account directly thanked Musk. A report from the Human Rights Campaign found that retweets of the GAG Twitter account's posts using the word "groomer" had grown by 300% when comparing the two months before and after Musk's purchase.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center "GAG leadership, including the group's director of chapters Mario "Presents" Estrada, has been tied to the hate group the Proud Boys, members of which have previously rallied with GAG's Florida chapter leadership."
Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard, described GAG as "a conservative funded propaganda account to push the groomer libel". In response, GAG used Caraballo's name as a discount code in connection with the sale of anti-trans merchandise.
In September 2022, PayPal and Venmo banned the group from raising funds on their platforms due to their acceptable use policies. GAG continued to use the fundraising platform Donorbox. Also in September 2022, GAG stated that it had been banned by Google.