Americans Have Been Panicking About Queer People Since Before America Existed
A look at queerness in the “colonial” era
As a trans person, I have watched in horror as the latest “groomer” panic has enfolded. I have observed moral entrepreneurs such as Matt Walsh and Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik whip up a frenzy against queer people based on lies about my community, alleging that we are all child predators.
I have spent a lot of time refuting these allegations over the last few years. And as I have learned more and more about history, it’s become abundantly clear that this is not a unique moment— neither in queer history nor the history of moral panics more broadly.
In fact, the seed for this latest panic is rooted in a type of thinking that existed even before the United States did as a concept.
“Before” Queerness
The definition of a moral panic is debated in the literature, as many phrases tend to be. Scholar Chas Critcher has argued that a moral panic is a term that should be exclusively reserved by elites who reinforce the status quo or, more specifically, “dominant regulatory practices.” Elites do this by scapegoating outsiders and otherized groups as “folk devils” who personify all that is wrong with society.
