At the end of February 2024, words allegedly said by US Representative Katie Porter circulated on Telegram: “Pedophilia is not a crime. This is a type of personal identification.” We checked to see if the congresswoman such spoke.
On February 26, more than 300 Russian-language Telegram channels made publications about a statement by US Representative Katie Porter. Porter allegedly said during her online appearance at a congressional hearing: “Pedophilia is not a crime. This is a type of personal identification,” and also allegedly accused people who condemn rapists of cruelty. Porter’s quote was shared in their Telegram channels by such users as the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Anna Kuznetsova (425,000 views on the day this analysis was written, according to the TGStat service), TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (380,000), blogger Ruslan Ostashko (112,000). This news was also published by some Media, bloggers, users "VKontakte", "Zena", YouTube, X And Facebook.
Although the video with Katie Porter appeared in Telegram channels in February 2024, the congresswoman’s speech itself took place on December 14, 2022 during hearings in the US Congress. The hearing discussed the issue of violence against LGBT people after shooting At the gay bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, five people were killed and dozens wounded.
Then, in December 2022, some federal Russian Media have already written about Porter’s speech in the US Congress, which allegedly caused outrage among members of the US Republican Party and social media users. In February 2024, the same news re-entered the Russian information field.
Most Telegram channels shared the original source of the quote - an excerpt from a video recording of Porter’s speech. However, in 20 seconds clip the words “pedophilia is not a crime, it is a type of personal identification” are missing. Porter says: "This label of groomer and pedophile implies that a person is a criminal and commits criminal acts based solely on their personality, sexual orientation, gender identity." To understand what we are talking about, you need to listen statement congresswoman from the beginning (her speech starts around the 2:49:33 mark).
At the beginning of his speech, Porter mentions study 2022 “Digital Hate: The Role of Social Media in Spreading Dangerous Lies About LGBT+ People.” This study assessed the popularity of tweets that equated members of the LGBT community with groomers, “predators,” and pedophiles. Grooming (from English grooming) is the process of establishing a trusting relationship with a child or teenager for the purpose of subsequent sexual exploitation. Porter says identifying LGBT people with groomers is “a perennial lie that positions LGBT+ people as a threat to children, restricts their access to public spaces and fuels fear and violence.”
Then, at the 2:51:05 mark, a clip circulating on social media begins. In the context of what was said earlier, it becomes clear that Porter is not talking about pedophiles, but about LGBT people who are called pedophiles solely on the basis of their sexual and gender identification.
TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov was the first to publish a quote taken out of context on February 26, 2024. However, this is not his first publication about Katie Porter's statement. December 17, 2022 Solovyov shared Zergulio's post, which published the same excerpt from the speech. Zergulio also referred to the Telegram channel of a Russian public figure and former State Duma deputy Semyon Bagdasarova, who posted the video a day earlier and wrote: "Democratic US Rep. Katie Porter believes pedophilia is not a crime, it's a form of identification." And yet, we were able to find the earliest publication with a cropped quote from Katie Porter in the Telegram channel “Madam Secretary" On December 15, 2022, the author published an excerpt of Porter’s statement and wrote a comment: “Pedophilia is not a crime, it is a type of personal identification,” which was then distributed to hundreds of other channels. The author of the channel “Madam Secretary” Dmitry Kholodnov often appears in on air pro-government “Radio Russia” and in the program “Karnaukhov's Labyrinth"on "Soloviev Live". In his telegram, Solovyov periodically shares posts Kholodnov on the topic of the LGBT community in the USA, so it is not surprising that a quote from Katie Porter’s speech also appeared in Solovyov’s channel.
Thus, Congresswoman Katie Porter did not argue that pedophilia is not a crime. She condemned social media users who called LGBT people pedophiles simply because of their gender identity and sexual orientation. Back in 2022, Russian Telegram channels distributed a distorted and out-of-context quote from Porter. And in 2024, this story was again useful to the Solovyov channel, this time causing an even greater resonance in social networks.
Cover photo: C-SPAN
- AP News. Posts mischaracterize congresswoman’s comments on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
- PolitiFact. U.S. Rep. Katie Porter didn’t call pedophilia an ‘identity’
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