So in case you missed it (and I really hope you didn’t—because the thing was a bear), yesterday I posted my rankings of the 26 worst Orange County political figures of 2026.
Buried beneath neon names like Will O’Neill and Todd Spitzer and Jack Hibbs and Mari Barke was, at No. 21, Sophia Lorey, the outreach director for California Family Council (aka: a whole bunch o’ white conservatives who believe We, The People, need more God, less trans, more Bible, less diversity). And, in a way, I felt torn about including Lorey, who looks to be in her early-to-mid 20s, graduated from (the e-x-t-r-a-o-r-d-i-n-a-r-i-l-y sheltered) Vanguard University and has been thrown—dirty towel-like—into the echo chamber that is right-wing media (land of older white male hosts fawning over younger white female guests with good hair).
And, if I’m Lorey, I’m milking this cow as long as I can. Fox News calls? Get on it! Newsmax calls? Get on it, too! Hell, back in my early days as a Sports Illustrated writer, I was jumping from radio interview to radio interview to radio interview. For an early media pro, PR is everything.
Truly, I get it.
But … yesterday, on her IG story, the same person telling thousands of viewers and followers what to believe, how to act, why they should be angry, posted this …
And, like, what?
What!?!?!?!?!?
You need your pepper spray … walking thru downtown Philadelphia? In daylight? Seriously? Like, seriously seriously? Are you carrying $100,000,000 in your purse? Are you wearing a mink coat with the price tag dangling off? Why, in God’s name, do you deem it necessary to have pepper spray (in a look-at-me pink canister, no less) in (of all the places) Philly?
My next sentence was going to be, “It makes no sense”—but then I realized, it makes perfect sense. This is a child of conservative Southern California; a product of Vanguard. I remember when we first moved here from New York, and I was dumbfounded to learn how many of my daughter’s friends had never been to (gasp) Santa Ana, let alone Los Angeles. It was all just too … scary. Too … chaotic. Too Latino and Black.
But it also causes you to realize that people of this young woman’s ilk, who thrive in translating the Bible into essential life lessons, haven’t lived life. They haven’t seen. They haven’t smelled. They haven’t experienced stepping into a dirty pot hole, sipping from a beer at a Trenton pub, walking the streets of Washington Heights, taking a glimpse at Gary, Indiana, meeting folks on the stoops of Brooklyn and Detroit and Chicago.
They walk among us, and they walk believing they have the answers.
But they carry pepper spray in a pink canister.
In Philadelphia.
PS: I would like to add: It is not easy being a woman, obviously, and there are 8,000 reasons to not only feel unsafe, but to want to carry some sort of pepper spray. My issue here is with the, “I’m in Philly, so I need this.” Thank you.
I'm gonna throw a wrench into this one, not to be a PIA, but because it's a reality for WOMEN and girls that We. Aren't. Safe. Anywhere.
I don't get harassed as often as I used to when I was younger, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
Both of my girls are harassed regularly. Not just in Los Angeles, but here in South OC, too. In Los Angeles, they have both had men expose their penis to them as they simply walk down the street; they have been followed; they have been approached in parking garages; they have had men literally hold their to go container hostage until the man feels satisfied that my daughter has answered all his questions properly before he gives her the bag. Here in OC? Men have harassed them as they walk at Strands; my youngest will be on a walk on Marguerite and have men pull over in their car and offer her a ride; they have been followed; they have been approached on trails... I could go on, Y'all. (From a search): "Globally, approximately 1 in 3 women (about 840 million women and girls age 15 and older) experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime."
I bought my girls walking sticks to take with them when they are out. They have taken self defense classes, but I'm constantly urging them to take a refresher. Women. Are. Not. Safe. Ever.
I know and have experienced shit from men- like many girls and women.
But, how the hell would she be able to use the pepper spray? One hand has the ever-present disposable coffee cup and the other has the ever-present phone?