When Victor Fiorillo isn’t writing for Philadelphia Magazine, he plays keyboard for a band led by a drag performer. That was enough for one Delco man to label the journalist as a pedophile in Facebook comments.
Ryan Nelson commented on a January post by Fiorillo in the Citizens of Delco public Facebook group, in which the reporter shared his article about a racial discrimination lawsuit against a country club restaurant.
“The only person to agree with you likes seeing dudes in dresses dance with kids,” Nelson wrote.
Fiorillo asked in return if the suggestion was that he was a pedophile because he performs with a drag queen.
“Yes victoria, corruption of a minor. Same as pedophile,” Nelson wrote, adding, “or do you prefer groomer.”
It wasn’t the first nasty comment Fiorillo received on social media, but this time the journalist had enough and decided to take legal action.
On Thursday, he filed a defamation lawsuit in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia against Nelson for his comments. The complaint accuses Nelson of being “a bigot and coward who hides behind his keyboard.”
The court docket does not include attorney information for Nelson, and The Inquirer was unable to reach him based on publicly available information. Philadelphia Magazine is not a party to the lawsuit.
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Fiorillo said that he has been called names in the past, but that Nelson crossed a line.
“I’ve never been called a pedophile before,” he said. ”These are disgusting criminal things that we don’t even want to think about, let alone be called.”
For two decades, the Philly Mag senior reporter has been part of the Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret, which he calls an “in your face rock and roll drag cabaret” led by the eponymous drag queen singer. Accusing drag and LGTBQ performers of being pedophiles is “an old homophobic and transphobic trope,” Fiorillo said.
Those types of accusations have been repeated nationally in recent years, as drag shows — especially in front of children — have been a cause of outrage by right-wing activists and politicians in the U.S. political culture war.
The band does perform in front of children, Fiorillo said, but that doesn’t mean there is anything inappropriate about it.
“We know the difference between a nightclub show and a show for children,” he said.
For example, a show in front of a younger audience is more likely to include Muppets songs, while a club show might lean more toward the repertoire of Prince, Fiorillo said.
The complaint includes screenshots of only a couple of comments, including the January exchange, but says that Nelson repeated the claim using a list of colorful synonyms for pedophile that include prison slang.
“Is this seriously all because I play piano for a band whose lead singer is a drag queen?” Fiorillo asked in another exchange cited in the complaint.
In a longer comment, Nelson took issue with Fiorillo’s body of reporting, calling his work “race bait journalism” and saying Fiorillo pushes to “keep hate and racism alive.” He also took aim at Fiorillo’s coverage of COVID-19 business shutdowns.
Nelson added: “Id bet if you had a drag queen [molesting] kids you would prob write how the kids are homophobic.”
The lawsuit says others on the Facebook group have read Nelson’s comments, and provides an example of another person repeating them, calling Fiorillo “the pedo guy.”
When journalists are involved in libel lawsuits, they usually find themselves in the defendant’s seat. Fiorillo said there is no tension between his commitment to free speech and his decision to file a lawsuit.
“There is nothing in the First Amendment that says you can call me a pedophile and a child molester,” he said.
The case is only in its earliest stages, but Fiorillo said he would donate any monetary award in support of the LGBTQ community in Philadelphia.
And while his main goal is to clear his name, Fiorillo also hopes the suit sends a message that online harassment has consequences.
“This lawsuit is about a guy in Delco and a guy in Philly … but really on a larger level it’s about a nationwide problem of online harassment,” Fiorillo said. “So if this case sends a message, then I’m good with that.”
