Donald Trump Jr and Laura Ingraham falsely claim California law change ‘normalises paedophilia’

Right-wing figures including Donald Trump Jr. have falsely accused the Democrats of deliberately “normalising paedophilia” after California changed a law to eliminate an inequality in how different sex acts with minors are sanctioned.

The law in question allows judges to decide whether or not a man should be placed on the sex offender registry if he had vaginal intercourse with someone between 14 and 17 – provided that there is no more than a 10-year age gap and that both parties say the sex was consensual.

Until now, the law has applied only to vaginal sex. The new measure simply altered it to include oral and anal sex, meaning that same-sex encounters will now be treated the same way.

The legislation as it stands is principally used to protect young people close in age where one is a minor, for instance two schoolchildren who have a relationship where one is a minor. Until this law was passed, if an 18-year-old and 16-year-old had vaginal sex, the 18-year-old would not necessarily be compelled to register as a sex offender. However, if they had oral or anal sex, an older partner would be automatically compelled regardless of the circumstances.

The state senator who introduced the measure, San Francisco Democrat Scott Weiner, said the updated law means California will now be "treating LGBTQ young people the exact same way that straight young people have been treated since 1944".

Many Republican critics, however, see the move differently – and as he often is, Mr Trump Jr. has been among the most outspoken.

“They’re normalizing pedophelia,” he wrote. “It’s not just Hollywood and Netflix. This is now becoming mainstream Democrat groupthink. It’s insanity and we must stop it.”

The president’s son has railed against the California initiative before. “Why are Joe Biden Democrats working in California to pander to the wishes of pedophiles and child rapists?” he wrote earlier this month.

He has also repeatedly accused the Democrats of overlooking or even indulging paedophilia; when Netflix caused an outrage with its marketing campaign for the film Cuties, he raged that “These people and the democrats viciously defending it are trying to normalize pedophelia!!! (sic)”

Also furious at the California law was Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who falsely said it meant paedophilia is “on its way to being recognised as a protected lifestyle”.

“Congratulations, California,” she tweeted. “And happening nationally if Biden gets to fill the courts.”

Ms Ingraham this week hosted a segment on her show targeting Cuties, in which she delivered an extended monologue on the film’s perversion. “I don’t know who else but pedophiles and creeps would want to make a dime off this garbage. Well, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, that’s who,” she said, before interviewing right-wing commentator Matt Walsh about its content and impact.

During much of the interview, one of the  “disgusting” dance routines that incensed her was displayed clearly across half of the screen, the film’s child characters shown grinding sexually on the floor without Ms Ingraham apparently noticing.