A “non-binary” and “queer” former VICE contributor has been sentenced to 90-months in federal prison for distribution of child pornography. He possessed more than 2,400 pieces of child porn on his phone, some of which showed infants and toddlers being sexually abused. He also planned to drug and rape a 9-year-old boy while unwittingly getting set up in an FBI sting.
A renowned "non-binary queer" artist and former VICE contributor has been sentenced to 90 months in federal prison after arranging to rape a 9-year-old boy.
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) November 28, 2023
The Department of Justice referred to Efrem Zelony-Mindell using "they/them" pronouns in court.https://t.co/v98nmf0vE9
An undercover FBI agent originally connected with the convicted Efrem Zelony-Mindell on Scruff, a gay hookup app. Zelony-Mindell suggested they switch to communicating on Telegram, an encrypted communication app. There, he expressed desire to partake in “[young] incest,” according to the criminal complaint. He also shared graphic photos and videos of children as young as toddlers being forced to perform sexual acts.
Telegram’s encryption ensures that all messages are anonymous and law enforcement cannot track users, creating a safe haven for illicit conversations and activities.
The undercover agent referred Zelony-Mindell to another undercover agent posing as the father of a 9-year-old boy pimping out his son and arrangements were immediately made to meet in New York City.
According to the official DOJ report that uses Zelony-Mindell's preferred pronouns (emphasis added):
From April 2022 to December 2022, ZELONY-MINDELL communicated with two undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) agents on an encrypted messaging service. In the conversations, ZELONY-MINDELL repeatedly expressed in graphic and unambiguous terms their desire to engage in sexual activity with minor children and sent the undercover agents numerous images and videos containing child pornography.
In conversations with one of the undercover agents who was posing as the father of a nine-year-old boy, ZELONY-MINDELL made clear that they wanted to engage in sexual activity with the purported child. ZELONY-MINDELL and the undercover agent discussed a plan to meet for the purpose of ZELONY-MINDELL engaging in sexual activity with the child. When told by the undercover agent that the child would be “knocked out a little bit” on sleep medication during the planned sexual activity, ZELONY-MINDELL agreed to have sex with the drugged child.
Zelony-Mindell was immediately arrested upon arriving at the premeditated meeting point.
Since Zelony-Mindell was sentenced on November 14, 2023, his case has been ignored by mainstream media despite previously receiving praise from major magazines like Forbes and Vogue. Vogue has since deleted its feature on the predator.
Zelony-Mindell was originally arrested and charged in December 2022 and pleaded not guilty to the enticement charges while admitting to possessing and distributing child pornography. Prosecutors sought to punish him with 10 years in federal prison, but the sentence was reduced to a mere 7.5 years behind bars with five years of supervised release.
In recent similar cases, defendants face up to 40 years in federal prison for the same crime, according to the Department of Justice. Other cases dealing with related material have seen defendants sentenced to 15 to 21 years in prison.
The Department of Justice, as quoted above, also chose to refer to Zelony-Mindell with his preferred “they/them” pronouns despite the FBI using (accurate) masculine pronouns in their quotes included in a statement (emphasis added):
Through a series of conversations with undercover FBI agents conducted on encrypted messaging platforms, he stated his desire to have sex with minor children, and he ultimately met with one of the agents who he believed would provide him an opportunity to do so.
Zelony-Mindell is an Arkansas-based social justice activist and photographer whose art focuses on queerness and LGBTQ+ topics.
In one of his VICE pieces, Zelony-Mindell praised artist Mary Ellen Mark for her photos of a 13-year-old sexually trafficked child.
When interviewed for online magazine “The Intercept,” Zelony-Mindell commented on his abstract approach to art, saying the perception of queerness as a physical matter “is dehumanizing, and that dehumanization inevitably leads to violence.”
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