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Infowars' Alex Jones has a long history of inflammatory, anti-LGBTQ speech

Jones' anti-LGBTQ speech is just part of the reason Facebook, Google, Apple and Spotify have all taken steps to remove his content from their platforms.
The Bilderberg Group Arrive In Watford
Alex Jones addresses media in the protester encampment outside The Grove hotel, which is hosting the annual Bilderberg conference, on June 6, 2013 in Watford, England.Oli Scarff / Getty Images file

From his 2010 assertion that the government is creating gay people through “a chemical warfare operation” to his threat this year to come after drag performers with torches “like the villagers in the night,” the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has a long and well-documented history of inflammatory speech aimed at the LGBTQ community.

This hateful speech, which at times advocates violence, toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people is just part of the reason Facebook, Google, Apple and Spotify have all taken steps to remove his content from their platforms.

On Monday, Facebook announced it had taken down four of Jones' pages for “repeatedly posting content” that violates the platform’s “community standards.” Facebook accused Jones of “glorifying violence” and “using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants.”

Jones, in turn, took to Twitter to accuse Facebook and other tech giants of “Chinese style censorship.”

Regardless of one’s views toward the social media crackdown on Jones, his history of anti-LGBTQ commentary is undeniable and well-documented.

“Along with his outlandish lies like calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax, Alex Jones has used his platforms to push countless false and hateful anti-LGBTQ myths, including that the Pulse nightclub massacre was the LGBTQ community’s fault and promoting defamatory misinformation about transgender people,” said Zeke Stokes, vice president of programs at GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy group that has been documenting Jones’ anti-LGBTQ statements.

The shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016, left 49 people dead, and Jones' claim that the 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was staged led the families of the victims to sue him for defamation.

While Jones' comments about the community have run the gamut, there have been several recurring themes over the years.

HOMOSEXUALITY: “A CHEMICAL WARFARE OPERATION”

For at least the past eight years, Jones has been peddling a conspiracy theory that chemicals are secretly being used to make people 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, without ever releasing any documents.

And it’s not only humans that are affected by this vast government conspiracy, according to Jones. Amphibians are apparently not immune.

“I don’t like them putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay,” Jones said during a 2015 rant about a chemical “gay bomb.”

In September 2017, Jones claimed “the majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are now gay” — presumably after years of being exposed to these secret government chemicals.

In June, Jones reaffirmed his support for this “chemical warfare” theory, claiming on his radio show that the Pentagon had developed “weaponized perfumes” that “will make men attracted to other men, and they want you to do that so you don’t have kids.

“IS MICHELLE OBAMA A MAN?”

Another of Jones’ and Infowars’ common themes is speculating about the gender and sexuality of political figures.

The headline of a July 2014 Infowars post asked the question, “Is Michelle Obama a man?” In a now deleted YouTube video that accompanied the post, Jones called the former first lady a “tranny,” a slur used to insult transgender people, and asserted that President Barack Obama is gay.

Jones continued to peddle these conspiracy theories about the Obamas over the years, even claiming they may have killed Joan Rivers for making jokes about Michelle’s gender identity.

Infowars has also promoted stories claiming that Hillary Clinton is secretly a lesbian and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., may have engaged with gay prostitutes in the ’90s.

Jones also launched an anti-gay tirade against Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., last year, using a number of vulgar homophobic slurs.

“THEY WANT ACCESS TO OUR KIDS”

Another recurring theme in Jones’ and Infowars’ playbook involves allegations of LGBTQ people abusing children.

In a July 2011 conversation with anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, Jones reportedly said gay people are “recruiting 7-year-olds” across the country and teaching them “sexual acts that can kill you.”

Later that same year, Jones reportedly warned his viewers that “nellies,” a derogatory term for gay people, are snatching children away from straight couples.

Then in July 2015, shortly after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the U.S., an article on Infowars said the decision may “pave the way for pedophile rights, making it easier for perverted politicians to commit their molestations.”

In June 2016, after the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, Jones said the “gay mafia” is really the “pedophile mafia” and insinuated LGBTQ people and Muslims were working together to promote pedophilia.

Last December, Jones claimed the new “LGBTQ23PCL4 agenda” involved teaching children to have sex with cars.

Among his most disturbing commentary was his June attack on drag queens, who are primarily gay male performers. Jones claimed they’re out to corrupt and abuse children and “test the righteous.”

A number of LGBTQ advocacy groups have applauded social media companies for removing Jones' content.

"There should be no place in the public discourse for the kinds of factually void conspiracy theories that Alex Jones peddles," Stokes of GLAAD told NBC News.

Jones and Infowars together had more than 2.5 million followers on Facebook alone. Jones can appeal Facebook's decision to remove his pages, but if he doesn't, or if the appeal fails, his page will be permanently removed from the site.

YouTube, the other platform on which Jones had a sizable following, terminated Jones' main account, which had 2.4 million subscribers, indefinitely.

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