Anti-LGBTQ “Influencer” Named to Oklahoma School Library Committee

Chaya Raichik, the woman behind Libs of TikTok, spews hate on social media… and then bomb threats to schools follow; great role model for kids, eh?

A school library committee, an anti-LGBTQ “social influencer,” and stochastic terrorism. What could these three things possibly have to do with each other? I’ll try and walk you through it.

First, the Oklahoma Library Media Advisory Committee: It is comprised of volunteers appointed by the superintendent of public schools and it makes recommendations on what books and materials should be available in school libraries. To be on the committee you must be a resident of Oklahoma and have a background as either a teacher or librarian.

Chaya Raichik is a realtor from New York (originally from California) and has never been a teacher or a librarian. She is a “social media influencer” specializing in anti-LGBTQ posts, and most especially anti-trans posts.

She has been appointed to that Oklahoma committee by Ryan Walters, the state’s Republican superintendent of public instruction.

All of that is enough right there to make your brain eat itself, right? However, it is worse than that.

There is the matter of stochastic terrorism. I have written about that before. The dictionary definition is this:

…the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.

When Chaya’s Libs of TikTok posts, bomb threats follow. For example, after Chaya posted about a school librarian in Tulsa, Oklahoma (whom Chaya said was “pushing a woke agenda”) and Ryan Walters retweeted it, the school promptly received bomb threats.

According to USA Today: “In at least 12 cases in the past two years, Libs of TikTok posts about schools, school districts and teachers have been followed by bomb threats.”

When confronted with this undeniable fact, Chaya replied that places get bomb threats all the time. There is no proof, she said, it has anything to do with her Libs of TikTok and its two million followers.

Uh-huh. Just one big coincidence that the very day she amplifies something — with her posts usually involving lies or gross misrepresentations — the harassment and threats follow.

Remind you of anyone?

Maybe I had a poor education and so I am not understanding this. So, could somebody please explain this to me?

Explain to me why a New York realtor whose social media posts mock and demonize LGBTQ folk which in turn then inspire people to threaten schools, teachers, and others, is somebody who should be part of deciding what books kids should have in Oklahoma schools?

I am sorry. I am not connecting the dots here. Do please explain.

Then again, don’t bother. My brain ate itself.

Do you remember the story of Dr. Gast? This was back in 2022. Dr. Katherine Gast works at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s UW Health gender services program.

Libs of TikTok took a video Dr. Gast had posted describing gender-affirming operations and reposted it. This is what Libs of TikTok does and where the name comes from, reposting what “liberals” have posted. However, Raichik always takes things out of context and misrepresents them.

Raichik posted Dr. Gast’s video and captioned it:

“Gast happily describes some of the ‘gender affirming’ surgeries she offers to adolescents including vaginoplasties, phalloplasties, and double mastectomies.”

Dr. Gast does not perform genital surgery on minors. According to that article from NBC News: “She performs what is known as ‘top surgery’ in certain cases for older teens after evaluations by doctors and mental health care professionals, and then only with parental consent.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, retweeted Raichik’s thread and added his own lying flourish: “She does this to children. Sterilizes & mutilates them. Before they are old enough to consent.”

Dr. Gast promptly started being threatened, received harassing phone calls, and she and her family were doxxed.

Not my fault, don’t blame me, says Raichik. Right. The social media “influencer” says she has no influence on that stuff. Somebody needs to go back to school for a remedial vocabulary class as the meaning of “influencer” is clearly over the head of this influencer.

So far, actual violence has not occurred as a result of the anti-LGBTQ posts of Libs of TikTok, only threats of violence and acts of intimidation. But we all know it is only a matter of time.

That is the whole point of stochastic terrorism. You dehumanize a certain group of people to the point where others decide it is justified to not treat them as humans. That means violence.

And this has what to do with books?

Maybe you are concerned about what kids are reading in schools. Fine. Maybe you want to make sure school materials are age-appropriate. Fine. Maybe you want to have thoughtful discussions about what books might not be appropriate in an elementary school versus a high school. Fine, fine, fine.

But what in the hell would a Brooklyn realtor know about book curation?!

I mean seriously, let us not forget there is this thing where you go to school to study to be “a librarian.” There is also this thing where you go to school to study to be “a teacher.”

Call me radical, call me extreme, but don’t you think librarians and teachers should be the ones discussing, debating, and making recommendations about books?

If you want a three-bedroom, two-bath, colonial-style home in which to raise your rugrats to be good little MAGA insurrectionists (she was at the “protest” on Jan 6th by the way), call Raichik. But who in their right mind would think a “social media influencer” should even be allowed to come within 100 yards of any school anywhere, let alone evaluate books?!

Just like schools post signs in the neighborhood warning drug dealers to not dare be caught even walking their dog anywhere near the school, I say the same should go for any “social media influencer.” For f**k’s sake!

I will leave you with one bit of good news. Oklahoma Democrats are seeking an impeachment probe of that yahoo superintendent Ryan Walters.

Oh, by the way, Oklahoma paid for Ryan Walters’ travel for speaking engagements, media appearances and a horror movie premiere despite the fact the governor had banned public spending for such out-of-state jaunts.

Raichik and Walters complain that LGBTQ people are terrible role models for kids. Really? Seems to me Raichik and Walters are trying to be role models to show kids how to be completely irresponsible dicks.