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Sextortionists sent South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey
sick message after son’s suicide
By Lee Brown
May 16, 2023 8:10am Updated
Sextortionists sent a grieving South Carolina lawmaker a sick message gloating about driving his teenage son to suicide — while threatening to release nude photos and demanding more money.
State Rep. Brandon Guffey, 54, told CNN that he got the Instagram message on the day his son Gavin would have turned 18 — and less than a month after he found him dead last year at their family home in Rock Hill.
“It said, ‘Did I tell you your son begged for his life,’ with a laughing face emoji,” Guffey told the outlet.
The sick, tragic crime was behind Guffey introducing “Gavin’s Law,” which was passed by state senators Thursday and is expected to be signed into law soon.
It threatens scammers who extort a minor or an at-risk adult with up to five years in prison for a first offense.
Guffey said he had no idea his son, a recent high school grad, was being blackmailed when he found him dead in the bathroom last July after hearing the loud thump of his body hitting the floor after he shot himself.
Gavin Guffey, 17, the tragic teen who inspired "Gavin's Law" in South Carolina.
Facebook / Gavin âGoopâ Guffey Remembrance
The lawmaker only realized 17-year-old son Gavin was being blackmailed after sextortionists started messaging him, too.
“My initial thought was, this is my fault — I left the gun out,” he said, adding he will never forget the pain of realizing his son died by suicide.
The sick plot emerged in part after the sextortionists started barraging Guffey and his family — including his younger son, Coen, 16 — with Instagram messages demanding more money.
They then realized that Gavin thought he was sharing nude photos with a young woman who first sent him pics — only to be told they’d be released to everyone he knew unless he paid blackmail.
The sextortionists started messaging the family of Gavin (here on his graduation day) after his death.
Family Handout
Gavin had used Venmo to send the scammers all the money he had: $25.
“He was telling them he would get them more money, please don’t send these images out,” Guffey told CNN. “They didn’t care.”
The grieving dad said the scammers used disappearing messages to make “kids feel safe” that their intimate pics would be scrubbed.
“What they don’t realize is, someone has another device recording that device,” he said.
“If you can extort 10 teenage boys that aren’t gonna say anything for $100 each, and do all that with one image that you got from a girl, it’s fairly simple.
“And teenage boys, whenever they see they’re getting that attention (from a girl), they’re not necessarily thinking.”
The FBI said that last year there were at least 7,000 reports of sextortion of minors, with at least 3,000 victims, mostly boys. More than a dozen are known to have died by suicide.
The true number may well be way higher because “the shame, fear, and confusion children feel when they are caught in this cycle often prevents them from asking for help or reporting the abuse,” the FBI says.
When Gavin died, his dad was in the middle of his successful run for state representative — and briefly considered quitting to focus on hunting for his son’s scammers.
“My wife said, ‘Absolutely not. You’re one of the few people that have a voice that can get out there and truly make a difference,’” he recalled.
He stayed in office, with “Gavin’s Law” his first order of business.
“I feel like he (Gavin) would want me trying to save additional kids from ever having to feel the way that he felt at that time,” he said proudly.
An FBI spokesperson told CNN that no arrests have been made in the Guffey case. The rep declined to provide additional information, citing an ongoing investigation.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
U of Wyoming sorority sisters say they ‘live in fear’ of trans member
By Yaron Steinbuch
May 16, 2023 8:51am
A group of sorority sisters who are suing the University of Wyoming for accepting a transgender woman into their group have broken cover to describe how they “live in constant fear in our home” — after the hulking student has become physically aroused around them.
The seven women from the Kappa Kappa Gamma house have filed a lawsuit against the university and Artemis Langford, 21, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound trans student who joined their chapter in September 2022.
Langford — referred to under the male pseudonym Terry Smith in the suit — has been living outside the sorority house and was expected to move in the coming year, according to Cowboy State Daily.
However, the student, who is referred to as “he” and “him” in the suit, still often stays for meals and attends events with the women, their attorney told Megyn Kelly on her podcast Monday.
“It’s a weird, gut-wrenching feeling that every time I leave my room there’s a possibility that I’ll walk past him in the hall,” one of the sorority sisters, Hannah, told Kelly.
“It’s a weird feeling just to know that I could run into him anytime … (he has) full access to the house. But this just goes to show like we need women’s spaces for that reason,” she continued.
“Like our house is our home. Just like anyone else’s home, like you go home at the end of the day to feel comfortable and relaxed in your own skin. And you can’t do that knowing that this individual has full access to your house.”
Another student said the situation is particularly distressing because some of her sisters have been “sexually assaulted or sexually harassed” and want to feel safe inside the home.
“So some girls live in constant fear in their home and our home is supposed to be a safe space,” said the young woman, who, like the other students, was not identified by name.
“It is seriously an only-female space. It is so different than living in the dorms, for instance, where men and women can commingle on the floors. That is not the case in a sorority house. We share just a couple of main bathrooms on the upstairs floor,” she said.
Langford (top right) has been living outside the sorority house and was expected to move in the coming year.
Instagram / @baileyy.jayne
The lawsuit alleges that Langford stared at the women without talking for hours.
“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel. She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw Mr. Smith watching her silently,” the lawsuit alleges.
In another disturbing incident, the lawsuit alleges Langford has even become physically aroused.
“Mr. Smith has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”
Craven told Kelly that “there has been an exemption granted for him for his safety, but not for these young women.”
“That individual still comes to the house, still engages in dinner, still sits in the chair and watches the girls,” the attorney said.
One of the students said she almost decided to leave the sorority because of the issue.
“But I reconnected with fellow sisters and alumni and I realized how important this organization is to me and to everybody else. And I refuse to allow subverting my rights as a woman to cater towards the comfort of a man. I will not let him take these opportunities away from me,” she said.
While Craven said that trans students need “their own spaces” and “deserve to be safe and protected,” it shouldn’t come at a cost to female students.
“It’s so obvious. It’s so biologically fundamental to the core. And we can’t allow, well, culture to be the arbiter of what sisterhood is. It’s a shared experience and it’s growth and it’s development and this experience is not doing this individual any justice whatsoever. So that’s where I think the left gets it wrong,” the attorney said.
The plaintiffs allege the national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, its national council president and Langford all pressured the local chapter to breach sorority rules.
They also alleged that the sorority ignored official bylaws when inducting Langford — and instead referred to a 2018 “Guide for Supporting Our LGBTQIA+ Members” that says Kappa Kappa Gamma is a “single-gender” organization.
Kari Kittrell Poole, the executive director of the sorority, has told the Associated Press that the lawsuit “contains numerous false allegations,” without specifying them.
She added that the sorority does not discriminate against gender identity.
The women are asking a judge to void Langford’s membership and to award unspecified damages.
The Post has reached out to the University of Wyoming and Kappa Kappa Gamma for comment.
Texas moves closer to statewide ban on sex-change procedures for kids
By CP Staff
Texas is one step closer to passing a ban on sex-change surgeries and body-altering drugs for children after state lawmakers approved legislation these extreme procedures.
Introduced by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell, Senate Bill 14 would prohibit chemical castration, like puberty blockers or opposite-sex hormones. SB14 cleared the Texas Senate in early April and, after nearly a month of debate, received initial approval Friday in the House.
The legislation — which was sent back to the Senate for approval on minor changes and still requires a final vote in the House — would also require the state medical board to revoke the license of any physician who provides such drugs or surgeries for children and prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for such procedures.
Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson, who was among those who advocated for the passage of SB14 and its companion bill HB 1686 in the state House, laid out his case for the legislation by focusing on what he sees as a mental health issue.
“Gender dysphoria is a mental health disorder, not a physical one,” said Oliverson. “Research shows as much as 80% of children with gender dysphoria, given supportive counseling and psychotherapy will come to accept their biologic sex by early adulthood.”
No scientific support for transgenderism
Oliverson also addressed parents who might have children suffering from gender dysphoria and the “false choice of transitioning their child or watching their child take their own life.”
“In truth, the scientific literature never supported this dichotomy,” he added. “But it speaks to the degree of irresponsible messaging that many who practice this experimental medicine use.”
During debate on the House floor, Democratic Rep. James Talarico — who, earlier in May, voted against rating pornographic materials in school libraries while leading a legislative effort to oppose the placing of the Ten Commandments in public schools — called SB14 “the most dangerous bill being heard” by the Legislature, according to the Epoch Times.
In a debate lasting nearly six hours, Democrats offered as many as 18 amendments aimed at limiting SB14’s language to apply only to surgeries while still allowing doctors and other licensed medical professionals to prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
Eleven Democrats, including Rep. Shawn Thierry, crossed party lines to vote in favor of the ban, compared with one Republican who voted against SB14, Rep. Charlie Geren, who did so. Geren and two Democratic lawmakers later said their votes were the result of either a mistake or a malfunction.
In addition to her vote, Thierry published a public letter explaining why she voted for the ban.
After voting for the ban Friday, Thierry wrote: "After hearing from constituents, listening to stakeholders, and reviewing the scientific data in this country and around the globe, I am assured that this position is rooted in sound policy which supports the health, development, and overall well-being of minors.
"It is only honest to admit and accept that little is known about the long-term effects of prescribing, taking GnRH-analogs, (i.e. "puberty blockers") and cross-sex hormones to children as young as 8, 9, and 10 years of age solely for the purpose of affirming gender dysphoria.”
For Texas, the ban on gender modification marks the final steps of a journey that began in August 2021, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s family services department to compile a report analyzing whether subjecting children with gender dysphoria to sex reassignment surgeries constitutes child abuse.
In a letter to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters, Abbott requested the state official to “issue a determination of whether genital mutilation of a child for purposes of gender transitioning through reassignment surgery constitutes child abuse.”
If you have read my blog for a while, you know what I think.
Noting the department is “responsible for protecting children from abuse,” Abbott wrote, “Subjecting a child to genital mutilation through reassignment surgery creates a ‘genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child.
“This broad definition of ‘abuse’ should cover a surgical procedure that will sterilize the child, such as orchiectomy or hysterectomy, or remove otherwise healthy body parts, such as penectomy or mastectomy."
While some of America’s most well-known medical associations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association — support puberty blockers and other drugs and surgeries for children, several states, including Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas, have banned prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors and disfiguring surgeries in light of concerns about the long-term effects of such procedures.
One of those long-term effects might include drastically increased (150 times as many) attempted suicides for transgender youth.
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