By
Congratulations are in order for the now-former Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Republican who just became the perfect face of his party’s purported crusade against “groomers.”
And by perfect, I mean perfectly hypocritical.
The Texas House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday to expel Slaton, who’s 45 years old, over allegations of sexual misconduct with a 19-year-old staffer. Slaton preempted his expulsion by stepping down from his position on Monday. In his resignation letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, Slaton made no reference to the allegations, which were laid out in a detailed report from Texas House investigators that called for his expulsion.
Nonetheless, the unanimous vote to give him the boot indicates the Texas representative had run out of helpful allies. Even the Texas Freedom Caucus, which is normally aligned with Slaton on policy, called for his expulsion after the report dropped.
What makes this moment so rich is that Slaton has led some of the Texas GOP’s attacks on LGBTQ-inclusive practices, which many Republicans these days baselessly characterize as “grooming.” Slaton, for example, introduced a bill seeking to ban minors from viewing drag performances, which he claimed was necessary to protect youths from “perverted adults.”
But the Texas House report detailing the Slaton allegations suggests he's the one engaging in manipulation for his sex. Or, put another way: behaving like a so-called groomer.
According to the report, Slaton had sexual intercourse with a legislative aide whom he had primary responsibility for overseeing. He invited her to his apartment late March 31 and served her several alcoholic beverages, the committee found. The aide testified that she consumed “a lot of alcohol” and felt “really dizzy” at Slaton’s apartment. Sometime on the morning of April 1, the two had sexual intercourse, and the aide got Plan B to prevent pregnancy later that morning.
NBC noted that investigators weren't able to determine whether Slaton had committed sexual assault against his staffer in this case, but the report determined the aide could not effectively consent or indicate whether sex was welcome or unwelcome at the time of the incident. The report also cited allegations Slaton harassed and retaliated against staffers to keep the allegations under wraps, and that he asked another lawmaker to keep the allegations quiet. Slaton and Patrick Short, his attorney, did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
I hesitate to say this report strikes at the credibility of the conservative movement’s “anti-groomer” crusade. The crusade wasn’t credible to begin with. But the report is useful in highlighting the fact that groomers are, in fact, a real problem in society.
The problem is, some of the political figures pointing fingers and yelling the loudest about the issue today may be culprits themselves.