Should Alex Jones Have To Pay For Lying About LGBTQ+ People, Too?

InfoWars host Alex Jones returned to his day job Saturday, telling his 8-million fans and followers that his trial in Austin, Texas was “a smoke and mirrors campaign meant to pave the way to destroy the First Amendment.”

That’s his “response” to this week’s verdict by a Texas jury that determined the conspiracy theorist and proven liar should pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, for branding the massacre “a hoax” and labeling the parents “crisis actors.” Under oath, Jones admitted on the stand that the deadliest shooting in U.S. history was “100% real.”

Aside from InfoWars, Jones has a very full calendar right now: Another trial for defamation awaits, this time in Connecticut, and the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection reportedly is interested in those cell phone records his lawyer mistakenly handed over to attorneys for the parents, allegedly containing a treasure trove of two years’ worth of text messages. The committee—which previously called Jones to testify but he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times—has promised to reconvene in full next month.

Given those pending high-profile appearances and the terrible toll his words have taken on the families in Sandy Hook, it may be premature to consider any action against Jones for other false claims he’s made.

But when it comes to spreading lies about the LGBTQ+ community, Jones has a long, shameful record:

• Jones falsely claims that drag queens “have their way with” children at Drag Queen Story Time events, as NewNowNext has reported.
• Jones claimed in April to have broken “The Groomer Gate Scandal” as far back as 2008. “Grooming” is a word used to describe acts by pedophiles to ingratiate themselves with potential underaged victims, and the implication is that LGBTQ+ people are pedophiles. Infowars has accused a wide variety of people and groups of “grooming” or sympathizing with groomers, including teachers, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the Disney Corporation, corporate media, and others he portrays as the “left.”
• Jones believes that pedophilia is so prevalent in the queer community that he’s deployed the acronym “LGBTP,” with the final letter standing for “pedophile,” reports the Texas Observer.
• “He doesn’t believe trans people are real, he believes it’s a performance or a fetish,” podcaster and InfoWars watchdog Dan Friesen told the Observer.
• Jones regularly misgenders transgender people on his show, or treats trans people and drag queens as equivalent.
• He suggests trans people represent a plot to undermine humanity: On his July 2, 2020 broadcast, Jones claimed that the ultimate goal of the transgender rights movement, which he likened to a “cult,” was to turn young children into “cyborgs” and “trans robots” by putting chips in their brains.
• GLAAD notes he also claimed transgender people want to use public restrooms that align with their gender identity so they can be “jacking with” children.
• “Michelle Obama is transgender, we all know it,” he said in 2017. “Michelle appears in photos and videos to have a very large penis in her pants, her shoulders are wide, her face is very, very masculine. She looks like a tranny.”

• That same year, he falsely accused Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), who is straight, of being gay: “Schiff looks like the archetypal cocksucker with those little deer-in-the-headlight eyes and all his stuff. And there’s something about this fairy, hopping around, bossing everybody around, trying to intimidate people like me and you,” Jones said. “He’s sucking globalist dick.”
• He claimed members of the United Nations are part of a global effort to replace white cisgender men and women: “The eugenics, trans-humanist cult wants to confuse the general species ahead of rendering us down and removing us.”
• Jones claimed the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre was the LGBTQ community’s fault, accusing gays of hyping the threat of violence “so you can sexualize my children and indoctrinate them into your cult.” He also accused them of conspiring with radical Islamic leaders to promote pedophilia and abuse children. “No wonder the radical left is allied with Islam, they’re a bunch of perverts, they want access to our kids,” he said.
• Jones accused the federal government of “putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay,” said Jones in a 2017 rant. “The majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are now gay.”
• “The reason there’s so many gay people now is because it’s a chemical warfare operation, and I have the government documents where they said they’re going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so that people don’t have children,” Jones said in June 2010.

“Elder Statesman of Bullsh*t”

Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at Media Matters for America, told the Texas Observer that Jones didn’t invent the conservative movement’s obsession with “groomers” and anti-LGBTQ+ animus. “Basically, this is a coordinated right-wing attack on LGBTQ acceptance,” Drennen said. So it’s not just Jones.

But Michael Edison Hayden, senior investigative reporter and spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, called Jones “an elder statesman of bullshit.”

The problem, as The Trevor Project has found, is that the atmosphere created by hate-filled messages, like those Jones has spread, has a direct impact on LGBTQ+ youth.

According to the organization’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health:

• 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.
• Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers.
• Fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming.
• LGBTQ youth who felt high social support from their family reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support.
• LGBTQ youth who found their school to be LGBTQ-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
• LGBTQ youth who live in a community that is accepting of LGBTQ people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not.

And both news reports and social media messages containing anti-trans sentiments can cause harm, according to The Trevor Project:

• 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth say that recent debates around anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their mental health.

“These results underscore how recent politics and ongoing crises facing the globe can have a real, negative impact on LGBTQ young people, a group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for depression, anxiety, and attempting suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society,” said Amit Paley, CEO & executive director of The Trevor Project. “It’s clear that lawmakers should be taking an intersectional approach to public policy, not working overtime to target the most marginalized young people, particularly those who are transgender or nonbinary, for partisan political points. We all must play a role in promoting LGBTQ acceptance and creating a more supportive world for all young people.”

What does defamation involve?

If someone wants to sue Jones—or anyone—for defamation, they’ll have to convince a judge or jury that what was said was a false statement—made verbally or in writing—that damaged their reputation.

Defamation laws vary from state to state, but the basic principles are the same in every state. A plaintiff suing for defamation typically must show:

• The defendant published a statement about the plaintiff.
• The statement was false.
• The statement caused them verifiable harm, and
• The statement was unprivileged, which depends on the circumstances involved. Privileged statements are those made in judicial proceedings, by high government officials or legislators or by spouses to one another.

Public figures, like Michelle Obama or Congressman Schiff, would have to show that they were defamed with what’s called “actual malice:” Proving that Jones made the false statement knowing it was false, or with reckless disregard for the truth. The parents in Sandy Hook are private figures, who only need to show that Jones acted negligently or carelessly.

As Sarah Palin learned in February when she sued The New York Times for defamation, and lost, it’s not a slam dunk.

For his part, Jones is likely to continue to claim his speech is protected by the First Amendment, both in court and on InfoWars. But he may once again hear words like those uttered this week by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Texas, who told Jones: “This is not your show. Your beliefs do not make something true. You are under oath.”