Anti-trans hate group Gays Against Groomers has been banned from PayPal & Venmo

The vehemently anti-trans group Gays Against Groomers has been banned from both PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo.

On Tuesday the group tweeted screenshots of the emails it received from each company and wrote, “We are an organization that consists entirely of gay people whose only mission is to safeguard children from abuse. Woke homophobia is real, folks.”

BREAKING: We have just been BANNED from @Venmo and @PayPal (within minutes of each other) for “violating” their user agreements.

We are an organization that consists entirely of gay people whose only mission is to safeguard children from abuse.

Woke homophobia is real, folks. pic.twitter.com/u5GsFqDn45

— Gays Against Gr██mers (@againstgrmrs) September 20, 2022

“PayPal’s policy is not to allow our services to be used for activities that promote hate, violence, or discriminatory intolerance,” a PayPal spokesperson told The Advocate. “We base our reviews of accounts on these parameters, taking action when we deem that individuals or organizations have violated this policy.”

Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.

Gays Against Groomers began as an anti-trans Twitter account run by lesbian Jaimee Michell, who has compared gender-affirming health care to Nazi experiments performed by Josef Mengele.

AdBridg.cmd.push(function() { AdBridg.display("div-gpt-ad-inarticle2"); });

The group describes itself as “a coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children.”

On its website, Gays Against Groomers claims that an “overwhelming majority of gay people” are against supporting trans youth and teaching children about LGBTQ people. It claims that “what we are witnessing is mass scale child abuse.”

The Twitter account just launched in June and has amassed almost 96,000 followers.

“I think it’s entirely expected [for them to be banned from Venmo and PayPal] considering the type of group they are and the behavior they’ve engaged in,” trans activist and Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo said.

“They have been one of the bigger accounts over the summer that popped up and really started to push this ‘groomer‘ narrative, and despite Twitter’s explanation that its hateful conduct policy covers the term groomer when applying it to a group of people — they have been suspended three times — Twitter has reinstated them every single time.”

Caraballo was victimized by Gays Against Groomers in early September when the organization used her name as a discount code to sell anti-trans merchandise.

Despite being permanently suspended 3x and reinstated without explanation, Gays Against Groomers is now engaged in harassment against me by using my name as a discount code for tees insinuating illicit material on a computer b/c I'm trans.

What are you doing @TwitterSafety? pic.twitter.com/mwsMZpyUtq

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) September 3, 2022

After PayPal spoke with The Advocate about its decision to ban Gays Against Groomers, the account tweeted that they “just learned” that PayPal had intentionally banned their accounts.

AdBridg.cmd.push(function() { AdBridg.display("div-gpt-ad-inarticle3"); });

“They said that don’t allow the promotion of discrimination but literally discriminated against us for being (the wrong kind of) gay?? Make it make sense.” 

We just learned through a hit piece written about us by @TheAdvocateMag that @PayPal banned our accounts intentionally.

They said that don’t allow the promotion of discrimination but literally discriminated against us for being (the wrong kind of) gay?? Make it make sense. pic.twitter.com/x4qYOioE3z

— Gays Against Gr██mers (@againstgrmrs) September 20, 2022

Caraballo has been advocating for Twitter to ban Gays Against Groomers as well.

“Despite Twitter’s explanation that its hateful conduct policy covers the term groomer when applying it to a group of people — they have been suspended three times — Twitter has reinstated them every single time,” Caraballo said, accusing anti-LGBTQ Fox News host Tucker Carlson of helping keep them alive.

“It’s important to note the relationship between Carlson and many of these hate accounts like Libs of TikTok, Gays Against Groomers, and Moms for Liberty and others that have been particularly focused on the LGBTQ community… They have very powerful allies in the media and government that are helping prop them up.”

AdBridg.cmd.push(function() { AdBridg.display("div-gpt-ad-outstreamplayer"); });