When Aaron Craig Gleason was arrested in Florida this January for allegedly molesting a child under 12, it exposed a pattern so predictable it would be boring if it weren't so fucking dangerous. A conservative writer who spent years accusing LGBTQ+ people of "grooming" children has himself been charged with the very crimes he projected onto others. The 39-year-old Christian school teacher and Daily Wire contributor joins a growing list of right-wing figures whose loud moral panic about drag queens and trans people serves as cover for their own predatory behavior.

Before his arrest on January 28, 2024, Gleason cultivated a particular kind of conservative persona. He taught at Rocky Bayou Christian School, coaching soccer and shaping young minds while moonlighting as an anti-LGBTQ+ writer for The Daily Wire and other right-wing outlets. His social media presence was a steady stream of moral outrage, targeting the LGBTQ+ community with accusations of "grooming" children - the same demographic he had access to every damn day in his classroom.

The school placed him on paid administrative leave two weeks before his arrest, suggesting they may have had early warning signs of trouble. After his arrest, The Daily Wire quietly scrubbed his author page from their site, though the Internet Archive preserves the evidence of their association. It's worth noting that despite the right's constant shrieking about "groomers" in drag shows, they seem remarkably quiet when it's one of their own accused of actual child abuse.

The Gleason case isn't an isolated incident - it's part of a wider pattern of abuse and hypocrisy within conservative Christian institutions. Let's look at the numbers that the right wing doesn't want you to see:

Religious institutions, particularly conservative Christian ones, have consistently shown higher rates of child sexual abuse than the general population. The Southern Baptist Convention alone acknowledged over 700 cases of abuse over 20 years. Meanwhile, there has never been a single documented case of child abuse at a drag queen story hour.

Catholic dioceses across the US have paid out over $3 billion in settlements related to sexual abuse cases. The Mormon church has faced similar scandals, with hundreds of millions paid in settlements. These same institutions often lead the charge against LGBTQ+ rights, claiming to "protect children."

In 2023, attorney Kristen Browde wanted to get a snapshot of data about who was committing sex crimes against children. Originally she shared some of the stories she found in a TikTok series called Who’s Making News for Sex Crimes Involving Children.

Ms. Browde ended up building whoismakingnews.com where she compiled and analyzed 10,885 cases between February 10, 2023 and May 23, 2024. The data showed that 846 of the perpetrators - almost 10% - were in religious employment. There are a lot of church leadership positions that don’t qualify as religious employment, so the known data only hints at the level of hypocrisy. How many of the perps were trans people or drag performers? 6.

This pattern of projection - accusing others of the sins you're guilty of - isn't new. It's a classic authoritarian tactic, and the American right has weaponized it effectively. By creating moral panic about marginalized groups, they distract from the institutional rot within their own ranks.

Consider the statistics: While conservatives rage about the imagined threat of trans people in bathrooms, over 400 Republican politicians and conservative activists have been convicted of sex crimes against children. The ratio of convicted conservative predators to drag queens who have harmed children is, mathematically speaking, fucking infinite.

The tragic irony is that while the right manufactures outrage about drag queens reading books to kids, they're actively protecting actual predators in their midst. Churches and Christian schools have repeatedly been caught covering up abuse, moving accused predators to new locations, and using religious authority to silence victims.

The pattern is clear: The louder someone screams about "groomers" in the LGBTQ+ community, the more likely they are to be projecting their own guilt. Gleason's case is just the latest example of this deadly serious game of psychological projection.

The response to Gleason's arrest follows a familiar playbook. The Daily Wire's attempt to memory-hole his contributions mirrors how religious institutions often handle abuse cases - quiet removal, minimal acknowledgment, and a hope that people will forget. This approach prioritizes institutional protection over accountability and justice.

If conservatives actually cared about protecting children, they'd focus on:

Instead, they waste resources persecuting drag queens and trans people who have never been linked to systematic abuse of children.

The arrest of Aaron Gleason isn't just about one alleged predator - it's about a system that enables abuse while manufacturing false threats. The real scandal isn't just that these crimes happen, but that the same institutions pointing fingers at the LGBTQ+ community are actively protecting predators in their ranks.

Until conservative Christians clean their own fucking house, they have no moral authority to lecture anyone about protecting children. The next time you hear someone ranting about drag queens corrupting youth, remember Aaron Gleason and ask yourself what they might be trying to hide.