LGBT content show at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth accused of having "child porn." Police report submitted. Call for criminal investigation.
Multiple elected officials have called for a criminal investigation.
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As always sources where possible are saved at the Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/ This report will be updated as things develop.
UPDATE 6: Warrant issued and executed at the Modern Museum of Art of Fort Worth. Art works “secured.
The exhibit is shutdown since you can’t view the images. From the article:
The Dallas Express has been notified that a warrant has been issued and executed regarding child pornography images at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
The images have been secured as potential evidence and will not be visible to the public while the investigation is pending.
Sponsors of the Museum are being targeted also.
UPDATE 5: Carlos Turcios interviewed on Infowars.
This is becoming a national issue for the right wing. War Room with Owen Shroyer, Dec. 27, 2024, “LGBTQ Art Forum Displays Public Nudity Of Children.”
https://banned.video/watch?id=676f505b22dc3ff39aaf5b43
UPDATE4: Dallas Express is still trying to make an investigation happen.
Dallas Express, Jan. 3, 2025, “Christian Organization Finds Fort Worth Museum Exhibit ‘Shocking’.”
It is the Danbury Institute. It is unclear exactly how much scope of influence this “national organization” has. A police report was reported to have been filed by the Dallas Express on Dec. 26, 2024. So it is nine days as of today, 1/4/2025, since the report was filed. I don’t think any police action is going to happen.
https://dallasexpress.com/metroplex/christian-organization-finds-museum-exhibit-shocking/
Update 3: It is now in the news.
UPDATE2: Dallas Express, Dec. 26, 2024, Carlos Turcios, “County Official Calls For Criminal Investigation Of Museum Exhibit In Fort Worth.”
Several elected officials have called for a criminal investigation.
“There are images on display at this museum that are grossly inappropriate at best. They should be taken down immediately and investigated by law enforcement for any and all potential criminal violations. Children must be protected, and decency must prevail,” Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare told The Dallas Express.
Others echoed O’Hare’s comment.
Bo French is quoted as calling the show “radical perversion.”
“Protecting society’s most vulnerable, particularly our children, was a key motivator for my decision to run for office. It is crucial that our legal framework leaves no room for predators to misuse the realm of art to display child nudity. Should any loopholes exist, we are prepared to address and eliminate them in the upcoming legislative session in Texas,” House District 91 State Representative-elect David Lowe told The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Express was notified that a police report had been filed with the Fort Worth Police Department. [Boldface added.]
https://x.com/DallasExpress/status/1872418378096181616
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1872322354669613059
UPDATE 1: Dallas Express, Dec. 26, 2024, “Fort Worth Resident Shares Reaction To Museum’s Exhibit: “Overt Violation Of Inherent Morality””
https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/fw-resident-shares-reaction-to-museum-exhibit/
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1051049460368099&id=100063891637282&_rdr
Dallas Express Dec. 23, 2024, “EXCLUSIVE: Is The Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth Promoting Child Porn?,” by Carlos Turcios.
They call the museum, The Modern Porn.
Most of the drag shows have been shut down. Turcios wrote a great many of the articles against drag shows. So it seems they have moved on to new target.
From the article:
With the end of the year fast approaching and Christmas right around the corner, a museum in Fort Worth is receiving backlash from the community after reports revealed that its current collection features pictures of naked children.
The Dallas Express received a tip from a Fort Worth resident, informing us that the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has a section called Diaries of Home. The documentary photography includes pictures of naked children and LGBTQ+ content. [Boldface added.]
….
The Dallas Express team then saw a video on a TV screen where an individual talked about her “queerness.”
“One of my major apprehensions around having a child was not knowing how we would be treated as queer people and queer parents. This is largely why I wasn’t interested in being pregnant,” the individual is heard saying during a video played during the exhibit.
Other photos showcase a topless woman exposing her breasts and a photo of two women together in bed, to name a few. [Boldface added.]
….
The article then discusses the laws against child pornography and quotes people asking for law enforcement to get involved and for their to be arrests.
https://x.com/DallasExpress/status/1871326973709922306
Turcios has been been reporting on the exhibit at his X account.
12/23/2024
What shocks him is “two women together in bed” and “nonbinary artists.”
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1871331439008244222
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1871331761994514883
(12/24/2024)
Bo French, reposted Turcio’s post and denounced the art. He is chairman of the Tarrant GOP.
Posts were made to Faceook by Turcios and Dallas Express.
The Exhibit, Diaries of Home, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
The exhibit is scheduled to Feb. 25, 2025, so according to the prior schedule you can see it. However, this is not to say there won’t be a police raid prior or that attending the show will be considered a criminal offense. Police actions and possible prosecutions will be discussed in a section towards the end.
This is the front page for the exhibit. All pages, including individual pages for individual artists are saved at the Internet Archive.
https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/diaries-home
This is the indepth page for the exhibit with essays about the exhibit and the individual artists involved.
Books related to the exhibition are online sale there. I am not a lawyer, so I don’t know if purchasing these books might result in prosecution or not.
https://shop.themodern.org/collections/current-exhibition
There is no transcript for this video. The first 40 seconds is annoying noise.
The presentation is also in a podcast.
https://www.themodern.org/podcast/artists-speak-gallery-discussion-artists-featured-diaries-home
Will anyone be prosecuted or arrested?
I am not a lawyer and I am not able to give legal advice. If you feel you need legal advice, get a lawyer.
There have been calls for arrests previously concerning Gay events which the Dallas Express has reported on. The Texas Latino Pride has led to calls for criminal investigations in 2023 and 2024. No one got arrested.
The demands by TX Rep. Matt Shaheen didn’t result in action by the City of Dallas in 2023, however, for 2024, the Pride Event on Cedar Springs adopted restrictions which would prevent any of the items in these photos.
This was in 2024 about the Texas Latino Pride event by Allen West who retweeted it under his name with the statement, “I said what I said …” No arrests or actions by the City of Dallas resulted.
https://x.com/DallasGOP/status/1835750302701760608
However, with the Fall 2024 elections the political landscape has changed alot.
Tarrent County took a “red turn” according to the Fort Worth Report.
One result is that the Mercy Cultures Church human trafficking center was approved after the election, even though it had been opposed and resisted by the neighborhood for two years. This is a church which sees witchcraft operating in its political opposition.
This is a report about them. Their main campus is in Fort Worth and a branch was discovered in Dallas.
Even before the Nov. 2024 national elections, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has shown a desire to prosecute in conjunction with right wing agendas. Paxton sued Pfizer over the covid vaccine.
Ars Technica, Dec. 4, 2023, “Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid.”
This was the subtitle. I speculate Paxton new his case was without merit, but wanted to appease a right win base.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton struggles with relative vs. absolute risk.
The requirement of a lawsuite being reasonable or rational I don’t think is an impediment to Paxton.
The Tarrant Co. Sheriff Bill Waybourn talks about a “demonic battle of our lifetime” to Mercy Culture Church. Some have called him to act against the art exhibit.
https://www.fwweekly.com/2022/04/20/honeypotting-the-religious-right/
So whether people will get arrested over the art exhibit we don’t know, but the possibility is certaining not unreasonable.
Don’t assume because the people involved are part of the elite of Fort Worth it won’t happen. The public attitude is very much against the elites and nothing would give joy and make gleeful the conservative support base in Texas than to see upper class and members of the art elite arrested.
Background Information
Carlos writes a lot of the anti-drag articles for the Dallas Express.
