Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert has spent years accusing queer and trans people of "grooming" and "sexualizing" children. Now her own eldest son is the one facing sexual exploitation charges involving a minor.
What Tyler Boebert Is Accused Of
According to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office, Tyler Boebert faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one involving enticing or inducing a minor, one involving intent, and one involving videos, plus two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Court records indicate the alleged conduct began on January 1, 2024. Investigators say Boebert filmed an explicit video of himself with a then-17-year-old girl, and that footage later surfaced on Instagram, where the alleged victim found it and told her mother. He was arrested on a warrant, bonded out the same day for $10,000, and the investigation remains open.
Lauren Boebert issued a brief statement defending her son without addressing the specifics. "I love my son. We take these allegations very seriously and pray for everyone affected during this challenging time," she said.
I love my son. We take these allegations very seriously and pray for everyone affected during this challenging time.
Lauren Boebert
Not His First Brush With the Law
This is not Tyler Boebert's first legal trouble, and reports on the timeline differ slightly. Earlier this year, he was charged with a misdemeanor after allegedly letting his then-2-year-old son wander from a family home; Lauren Boebert has said the child was quickly and safely secured by a bystander. In February 2024, roughly two months after the exploitation allegations reportedly began, he was arrested on a string of vehicle trespass and identity theft charges, eventually facing 22 counts, including felony possession of identification documents and conspiracy, tied to thefts from parked cars and, according to reporting, from a woman with a brain tumor.
The Rhetoric That Made Her Famous
Boebert didn't just casually use the word "groomer." She deadnamed and misgendered Dr. Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender federal official, accusing her of "grooming" children into being transgender. She's mocked Pete Buttigieg's parental leave and repeatedly framed drag performers and trans visibility as dangers to kids. The "grooming" smear itself has a documented history: it borrows language that actually describes how child predators manipulate victims and redirects it, without evidence, at an entire community. Fact-checkers have debunked the claim for years; Boebert's own response, in 2022, was simply "Okay, groomers."
That rhetoric has never been consequence-free. After the 2022 Club Q shooting, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Boebert had played a role in "elevating anti-LGBTQ+ hate rhetoric." Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone, the state's first openly transgender legislator, put it more directly.
You spreading tropes and insults contributed to the hatred for us.
Brianna Titone
MQ's Take
There's a grim symmetry here that doesn't require exaggeration to land. Every available data point shows LGBTQ+ people are not disproportionately responsible for child sexual abuse, and trans people in particular are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it. The "groomer" panic Boebert helped mainstream was never about protecting kids. It was a political cudgel, and it worked because it borrowed the language of a real harm and pointed it at people who weren't causing it. Nothing about her son's case proves anything about straight men as a class, just as nothing about drag brunches proved anything about queer people as a class. But the double standard she's benefited from for years, deflecting to prayer and privacy for her own family while demanding scrutiny and shame for others, is exactly the point critics have been making all along.
Cover photo: House Creative Services, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
