The month of June is internationally recognised as Pride Month. The intention is to support, highlight and celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community, who have historically been an oppressed group. During this month many companies, public figures and private citizens have expressed their support for the LGBTIQ+ community on their social media platforms. But, as well as these expressions of support, there has also been a significant backlash. This backlash has involved homophobic and other anti-LGBTIQ+ hatred being expressed online.
This briefing covers some of the forms this hatred is taking on X (Twitter). GLAAD recently ranked X as the most dangerous platform for LGBTIQ+ users, and the only major social media platform to become less safe since the previous year. Last month, the Online Hate Prevention Institute documented the homophobic backlash on X in response to a change in policy from the United Methodist Church. Homophobic and anti-LGBTIQ+ hate speech is therefore a persistent problem on X, and the platform needs to better enforce its policies on hate speech in order to become a safer space for the LGBTIQ+ community.
Accusations that the LGBTIQ+ community are a threat to children
Some posts during pride month reinforce pre-existing homophobic and anti-LGBTIQ+ narratives. One such narrative is that members of the LGBTIQ+ community are paedophiles and a threat to children.
The following post shows a video of Scott Wiener, a gay Senator, giving a speech at the beginning of Pride Month in San Francisco. The post quotes Wiener as saying “We are always there for these kids. These are our kids”. In response, one user comments that “Within a few months we’ll see that this guy has been arrested for having kiddie porn on his PC”. Another implores Wiener to “leave the kids alone!”. A third user, repositing and commenting on the original post, writes: “Stay the Hell away from the Kids. Gays should be separated from Kids because they Rape and Molest Kids”.
These comments all imply that gay men are predatory and a danger to young children. They therefore reinforce the stereotype that LGBTIQ+ people are paedophiles who are a danger to the community.
The following post contains an image of the Pride flag with a “STOP” symbol overlayed on top. The text reads: “Nobody gives a shit who you bang just shut up and Leave the kids out of IT”. This post, firstly, suggests that LGBTIQ+ are undeserving of Pride Month because they face no genuine hostility to their lifestyle. Secondly, the post implies that the LGBTIQ+ community is a threat to children and that any anti-LGBTIQ+ criticism stems from this belief.
The following post shows an image of a crocodile in the colours of the transgender flag attempting to eat a baby snake, and then another image of a parent snake pointing a gun at the crocodile. The text reads “Stay the fuck away from out kids, freak” and the caption of the post says “Happy pride month”. The crocodile represents the LGBTIQ+ community, who is portrayed as a threat to children (the baby snake). This post reinforces the stereotype that queer people are predatory and a threat to children.
Promoting the idea that Pride Month is unwarranted or undeserved
Some of the posts surrounding pride month question whether the LGBTIQ+ community deserve to have their own dedicated month. These posts often question why other groups, particularly military veterans, do not have their own month. These posts suggest the LGBTIQ+ community is undeserving of support and obfuscates the history of oppression that has been faced by the community. Furthermore, it is important to note that the month of May is recognised as Military Appreciation Month. As such, these posts often falsely imply that society is disproportionately sympathetic to the LGBTIQ+ community by ignoring months dedicated to other groups.
The following post shares an image of a soldier next to an image of a man apparently on a Pride march. Beneath the former it says “One day” and beneath the latter it says “A Whole Month”. This post falsely implies that there is only one day dedicated to soldiers, and that the LGBTIQ+ community are therefore disproportionately celebrated by society. The caption of the post reads “What should happen to pride month?”. The implication is that Pride Month should be altered or abolished in favor of time celebrating military personnel.
The following comments are responses to the previous post. They both suggest that Pride Month should not be celebrated and should be replaced with a month for other communities, like “Memorial Month” or “Patriots Month”. In both cases, these posts imply that the LGBTIQ+ community is undeserving of support and undermine the struggle of LGBTIQ+ community members.
Undermining LGBTIQ+ Allies
Some posts on X aim to undermine LGBTIQ+ allies. This is particularly common during Pride Month, as the month is a chance for companies and public figures to voice their support of the LGBTIQ+ community and show solidarity. As a result, there is more opportunity to undermine LGBTIQ+ allies during Pride Month because those allies become more vocal.
In this next post, a user on X has shared a video of someone expressing their support for the LGBTIQ+ community. Their caption reads “I’ve been telling yall to stop watching Ms. Rachel!!” and the hashtags include #gowokegobroke and #boycottpridemonth. This user is therefore telling their followers to stop watching someone because they have expressed support towards to LGBTIQ+ community. Their hashtags also suggest that they will boycott, and remove their support of, any figure who goes “woke” by supporting pride month. This user therefore criticises all support towards pride month and the LGBTIQ+ community, thus undermining allies to the LGBTIQ+ community.
This next user posts a picture of an apparent Navy ship flying a pride flag (among numerous other flags). The caption highlights the “Gay woke Pride Flags” and says “what a Discouragement”. This user is therefore “discouraged” by the Navy’s apparent support of the LGBTIQ+ community during pride month, and therefore seeks to undermine allies to the LGBTIQ+ community.
In the following post, an X user re-tweets another post from a NASA account. The original post from NASA displays the image of a Pride flag being raised underneath the US flag, and the caption reads “For the first time, we have raised the Intersex Progress Pride Flag at a NASA center to commemorate #PrideMonth”. The next user (red) re-tweets this post with the caption “NOT SO FAST WITH OUR TAX $” and “The sheer social/science/biological ignorance explains why @SpaceX is beating the shit out of these woke fools”. The user goes on to claim that “NASA endorses child abuse”, and shows a picture containing various anti-LGBTIQ+ imagery.
This post therefore criticises NASA on the grounds that they have shown support of Pride Month and the LGBTIQ+ community. It says that this support is a sign of NASA’s social, scientific and cultural ignorance, and that the LGBTIQ+ community are child abusers. As a result, this user expressed hatred towards the LGBTIQ+ community by undermining the support expressed by allies of that community.
A globalist conspiracy
Some posts imply that Pride Month is forced upon society by the elites and is part of a larger global conspiracy to stifle and suppress alternative points of view. These posts therefore imply that, far from being victims, the LGBTIQ+ community is in a position of power and dominance in society. This narrative therefore undermines the oppression actually experienced by the LGBTIQ+ community and implies they are undeserving of support.
The following post describes Pride Month as a “month of oppression” and claims that “everyone that doesn’t agree with their views is oppressed and seen as homophobic”. This portrays Pride Month and the LGBTIQ+ community as a dominating, controlling force that intends to stifle free speech.
The following post comments on a video portraying LGBTIQ+ activists being arrested in Russia. The user comments that “In Russia police is actually working FOR the people. Not globalist puppets like in West”. This user implies that LGBTIQ+ activism is the work of “globalist puppets”, and suggest police who arrests those activists are “working for the people”. This suggests that Pride Month is part of a globalist conspiracy to control “the people”.
Transphobia
Much of the hate-speech towards the LGBTIQ+ community, both during pride month and in general, consists of hatred towards Trans people. Thus, many of the anti-LGBTIQ+ posts on X during pride month specifically attack the Trans community. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing another briefing specifically on Transphobia on social media.
This post shows aliens peering over a human, stating “subject is a male human”. In the next window, a woman is shown saying “Excuse me, but I identify as a female”. The final window portrays the aliens saying “subject is a retarded human male”. This image therefore implies that people who claim to be trans women are both mentally ill and actually men. This post is therefore transphobic because it denies the reality of trans women and portrays them as being victims of a mental disorder.
This next post, which features the hashtags #boycottpridemonth and #boycotttransgendersurgeries, has the caption “The Left created this mental illness”. This post also rejects the identity of trans women and claims that being trans is a mental illness created by Leftist political forces.
Baseless hatred
Many users engage in hatred towards the LGBTIQ+ community without articulating any underlying reason or motivation behind this hatred. For example, the following user re-posts a video of LGBTIQ+ activists being arrested by Russian police, and writes: “this is how these matters should be handled”. This user is therefore suggesting that celebrating Pride Month should be considered a detainable offense. This position clearly constitutes a radical anti-LGBTIQ+ stance, but the user does not offer any basis for this hatred.
On the topic of Pride Month, the following user suggests that we should “Fire them from their government jobs” as “They’re not helping the community”. The claim that LGBTIQ+ members should be fired from government jobs is a radical anti-LGBTIQ+ position. The user does not specify how they are supposed to be harmful towards the community, and it may be that they are hinting at some of the false stereotypes discussed above. As it stands, though, this post expressed anti-LGBTIQ+ hatred without elaborating on why.
The following post shows a video of the pride flag on a footpath with a compilation of people wiping their feet on it as they walk by. This is an act of brazen disrespect towards the LGBTIQ+ community. The user posts their support of this video, saying “Very good idea to spread this everywhere”. This user therefore endorses disrespecting the LGBTIQ+ community and engages in anti-LGBTIQ+ hate, but they do not outline their reasons for holding this attitude.
Conclusion
Pride Month is intended to support and celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community. But any such large scale show of support threatens to provoke a backlash. This is exactly what we are seeing on X at the moment, with numerous posts demonising the LGBTIQ+ community, denying the need for Pride month, undermining LGBTIQ+ allies, attacking the Trans community and expressing baseless hatred towards queer people.
X does have community guidelines regarding hate speech, and these guidelines state unequivocally that “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category”. At the same time, X seems unable to fend off hateful content that reinforces harmful stereotypes about LGBTIQ+ members and undermines support for the community. If X ever hopes to become a safe platform for LGBTIQ+ members, it needs to find a way to better enforce its own policies.