U.S. Rep. Katie Porter didn’t call pedophilia an ‘identity’

A recent clip of U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., is circulating on social media as evidence that she thinks pedophilia is not illegal but an identity. 

"Rep Katie Porter (D) says pedophilia isn’t a crime — it’s an identity," reads the description of an 11-second video featuring the representative. 

But that’s not what Porter said in the video clip, which was taken from C-SPAN’s broadcast of a more-than-three-hour House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Dec. 14 about anti-LGBTQ violence. "This allegation of groomer and pedophile, it is alleging that a person is criminal somehow, and engaged in criminal acts merely because of their identity," Porter says in the clip. 

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Survivors of the Nov. 19  Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, testified about their experiences during the hearing.

Porter’s comments begin around the the original C-SPAN video’s 2:49 mark. She began by saying that social media posts "identify LGBTQ people as so-called groomers" and that the "groomer narrative is an age-old lie to position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids." (We’ve previously written about "grooming" allegations.) 

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She also talked about allegations that someone is a groomer or pedophile "merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity."

But she wasn’t suggesting that pedophilia is an identity and not a crime, as this post says. She was discussing social media posts that malign people as pedophiles simply because of their identity. 

We rate claims that Porter called pedophilia an identity and not a crime Pants on Fire!