Washington Times columnist Cheryl Chumley is under fire for an anti-transgender piece that included a Bible verse wishing death on supposedly bad parents.
Chumley’s column, published Monday in the far-right outlet, condemned the parents of an 11-year-old trans girl, Dempsey Jara, who was grand marshal of Orlando’s recent Pride parade. Chumley described the child as “an 11-year-old boy pretending to be a girl — because, in large part, his parents have pushed him to believe that” and said the “sick, evil people” who cheered Dempsey, “along with the boy’s sick, evil parents, will one day face an unimaginable wrath.”
She then included this Bible verse from the book of Matthew: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
She also wrote, “Pride events are by nature despicable shows of rebellion against God. But sticking a child at the helm and applauding his participation? That’s just a totally new level of sickness. Children with parents who allow them to gender shift as such an early age as 5 ought to be arrested and charged with child abuse, not given public platforms to showcase their abuse.”
The column drew quick and strong denunciation on social media. Chumley “just straight up called for the execution of the parents of a trans girl who was grand marshal of Orlando Pride,” Harvard Law instructor, tech expert, and trans activist Alejandra Caraballo wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
One commenter on Facebook wrote, “This article is disgusting. How do you call yourself a Christian while you’re spouting evil and vileness? Stop using your religion as a reason to be a bigot.”
Chumley clapped back at some of her critics. “I said arrest and loss of custody, not execution,” she wrote on X. “Stick with the truth … unlike the abusive parents who tell their little children they can change from boy to girl at whim.”
PinkNewsasked Chumley for comment. “Of course I stand by my column, whatever that means,” she replied by email. “If it means ‘have the angry masses of atheistic, secularist, supporters of child abuse browbeaten me into changing my opinion,’ well then, that’s a big no. Child abuse is wrong in my eyes, child abuse is wrong in God’s eyes.”
