A Group of Sex Ed Teachers Are Afraid for Their Lives Amid Right-Wing Harassment Campaign
The right-wing activist behind the "critical race theory" conflict has set his sights on a sex ed group, and the women are seeking refuge in safe houses.
Politics

A group of sex education teachers in Appalachia are afraid for their lives—so much so that they are having to hide in safe houses—after Christopher Rufo, the right-wing activist credited by the New Yorker for effectively “inventing the conflict” surrounding critical race theory, has now set his sights on “exposing” their program.
On March 8, Rufo began tweeting about a past virtual event called “Sexy Summer Camp,” which welcomed people of all ages in rural Kentucky with limited access to education and resources intended to aid in healthy, safe sexual exploration. The itinerary, which was published by Rufo, includes lessons on “gender exploration,” “self-pleasure” “pelvic floor health,” and “self-managed abortions.” Rufo honed in on the fact that the camp was advertised for all ages —implying that children and adults could be receiving the same lessons—and that masturbation would be “demonstrated,” though the itinerary made it explicitly clear that the act would be demonstrated “on hands.”
Since the thread was published, the program was featured on The Ingraham Angle, was called out in an advertisement for a populist conservative think tank, and has attracted the attention of a slew of well-known conservatives like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh. Now, program staffers have been doxxed on Twitter, with a users on social media likening them to “witches,” “predators,” and “pedophiles,” and calling for their arrest. The online attacks have become so prevalent that they’ve recently been forced to seek refuge at “safe houses,” a source close to the women told Jezebel, and an allied local pro-abortion organization has also created a spreadsheet to track threats of violence and death against the staff.
“Since last Tuesday, Sexy Sex Ed, our educators, and our funders have been flooded with hundreds of threatening messages across all platforms,” the group wrote in a statement on their website Tuesday. “We recognize that the current misinformation attack against Sexy Sex Ed is part of a long-term, highly funded, and coordinated strategy of the right to maintain and entrench their power through media and narrative control.”