as 'child abuse'". In July 2022, the New York Times published an op-ed falsely attributing the overturning of Roe v. Wade by six conservative Supreme Court justices, to the existence of trans women causing the "erasure" of "women as a biological category". This article was widely circulated, with Representative Rashida Tlaib issuing a statement in response saying that "During escalating assaults on trans people & trans rights nationwide, the New York Times is featuring writers debating whether trans people should even exist and scapegoating this already-marginalized community." Since then, the New York Times has published several more pieces arguing in favor of restricting access to gender affirming healthcare for trans people, many of which have been widely criticized as "misinformation" by medical experts. In February 2023, more than 200 NYT contributors signed an open letter expressing "serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper's reporting on transgender, non⁠-⁠binary, and gender nonconforming people". The letter characterized the NYT's reporting as using "an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language", and raised concerns regarding the NYT's employment practices regarding trans contributors. Grooming conspiracy theory Popularization of the grooming conspiracy theory in the United States has been linked to Christopher Rufo, who tweeted in August 2021 about "winning the language war," and James A. Lindsay. Following the Wi Spa controversy in July 2021, Julia Serano noted that there a rise in false accusations of grooming directed towards transgender people, saying that it appeared as if there was a movement to "lay the foundation for just smearing all trans people as child sexual predators." Libs of TikTok (LoTT) also helped popularize the term 'groomer' as a pejorative for LGBT people, supporters of LGBT youth, and those who teach about sexuality. In November 2021 LoTT claimed that the Trevor Project was a "grooming organization" and later in the year claimed that Chasten Buttigieg was "grooming kids." On February 24, the right wing Heritage Foundation issued a tweet stating that the Florida Don't Say Gay bill "protects young children from sexual grooming". On March 4, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, referred to the Don't Say Gay bill as "an anti-grooming bill" and stated via twitter that anyone against it was "probably a groomer". Since then, numerous right wing pundits began describing the behavior of parents and teachers who want to allow children to express their transgender identity as grooming, and