U.S. Rep. Katie Porter didn’t call pedophilia an ‘identity’

A recent clip of U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., is circulating on social media as evidence that she thinks pedophilia is not illegal but an identity. 

"Rep Katie Porter (D) says pedophilia isn’t a crime — it’s an identity," reads the description of an 11-second video featuring the representative. 

But that’s not what Porter said in the video clip, which was taken from C-SPAN’s broadcast of a more-than-three-hour House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Dec. 14 about anti-LGBTQ violence. "This allegation of groomer and pedophile, it is alleging that a person is criminal somehow, and engaged in criminal acts merely because of their identity," Porter says in the clip. 

Posts sharing this video were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Survivors of the Nov. 19  Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, testified about their experiences during the hearing.

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Porter’s comments begin around the the original C-SPAN video’s 2:49 mark. She began by saying that social media posts "identify LGBTQ people as so-called groomers" and that the "groomer narrative is an age-old lie to position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids." (We’ve previously written about "grooming" allegations.) 

She also talked about allegations that someone is a groomer or pedophile "merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity."

But she wasn’t suggesting that pedophilia is an identity and not a crime, as this post says. She was discussing social media posts that malign people as pedophiles simply because of their identity. 

We rate claims that Porter called pedophilia an identity and not a crime Pants on Fire!