Accusations of 'grooming' are the latest political attack — with homophobic origins

Supporters of Florida's recently signed Parental Rights in Education law demonstrate at the Duval County Public Schools building in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 3. (Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union/USA Today Network via Reuters Co.)

Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union

Mallory McMorrow was stunned when she saw it.

With horror, the Michigan state senator, a Democrat, read an email accusing her of “grooming” children. The email was sent by a fellow senator, Republican Lana Theis, who was soliciting funds from her supporters for her reelection campaign.

In that email, Theis wrote that children are “under assault in our schools” by what she called “progressive mobs trying to steal our children’s innocence.”