Libs of TikTok Founder Might Seek Public Office

The force behind the X account Libs of TikTok, Chaya Raichik, says she is “planning something big” in her mission to rid schools of pornographic books and wouldn’t rule out a run for public office. “If the calling is there and I have to, maybe,” Ms. Raichik told an audience of 60 Sun Founder members and others this week at the Dania Improv Comedy Theater just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida.Libs of TikTok, the X account Ms. Raichik runs, has nearly 3 million followers and is highly controversial. Some on the right love it for exposing gender ideology in schools, trolling the press, and advocating for right-wing causes. The account is best known for reposting TikTok videos of LGBTQ persons, mainly teachers, talking about “queering” the curriculum and exposing students to the concept of gender identity. Others say the account is homophobic and engenders worries that LGBTQ persons are “grooming” and sexually abusing children. The account helped spawn the movement to ban drag from schools. Ms. Raichik celebrated this week the firing of a drag queen principal in Oklahoma. Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” — was also reportedly inspired, at least in part, by Libs of TikTok posts.When pressed by the Sun about where she draws a line between opposing gender ideology and outright mocking LGBTQ persons, Ms. Raichik said she doesn’t care about a person’s identity. She just opposes anyone teaching children about sexuality and gender identity. She also thinks books that have sexual content should be banned from schools.“In terms of schools, I don’t care how someone identifies. It’s just you can’t push that onto the kids,” Ms. Raichik said. “I don’t want straight teachers talking about their sexualities all day in the classroom either. It has nothing to do with the sexuality of the teacher, it has to do with pushing that onto children.”Ms. Raichik has tapped into an issue of concern for many parents. The number of American children diagnosed with gender dysphoria tripled between 2017 and 2021, and the number of children taking puberty blockers and hormones more than doubled.Some of Ms. Raichik’s posts, though, feature a mocking tone. She reposts TikToks of transgender persons in distress over being misgendered or describing their pronoun preferences. The tag line to these posts is often that there is a “mental health crisis” in this country. She posts about teachers who dress in drag or have OnlyFans accounts. She’s boasted about getting some of these teachers fired. The more ridiculous, the funnier, the more likes. A 29-year-old orthodox Jew from Los Angeles, Ms. Raichik says she didn’t follow politics or the news before she started Libs of TikTok anonymously in 2020 to repost TikTok videos of “dancing nurses and people bowing down to Dr. Fauci.” She says Covid lockdowns opened her eyes to government hypocrisy.“You have to be awakened first,” Ms. Raichik said, referencing a sort of “red pill” moment. “I have no background in media or in journalism or in politics at all.”Ms. Raichik now considers herself an independent journalist. She gets about half her content from browsing TikTok and the news herself, while the other half she gets from tips sent to her. She now frequently posts critically about DEI and immigration. She has also started conducting interviews and posting the video directly to her X account. When asked how her account grew so quickly, Ms. Raichik thanked podcaster Joe Rogan. “Get a shout out from Joe Rogan,” she advised the audience on how to get big.In 2022, a Washington Post reporter, Taylor Lorenz, doxxed Ms. Raichik, who until then had remained anonymous behind the Libs of TikTok account, despite its growing size and influence. She now thanks Ms. Lorenz for disclosing her identity. She is making a living off her X account, Substack, and related content. She says she is in contact with President Trump and his staff.The bigger Ms. Raichik’s profile gets, the more negative press attention she garners. NBC News published an article last week accusing Ms. Raichik of “sparking” 21 bomb threats after she posted about specific persons or institutions. Ms. Raichik says the bomb threats accusation is “just another one of their tactics to try to undermine me and try to silence me.”“I’m obviously against bomb threats,” she says. “I’ve said that many times.”Ms. Raichik says she’s not going to be silenced anytime soon. Her “big plans” for the future could entail a run for office or work with the Trump campaign. “We don’t have anything set in stone right now,” she said, “but I do talk to them.”________Correction: 60 was the number of Founder members and others at the Sun event at the Dania Improv Comedy Theater. The number was given incorrectly in the bulldog edition.

Libs of TikTok Founder Might Seek Public Office

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