Anti-LGBTQIA+ bills are at record highs in the US amid an upcoming election. Here's why
For those in the LGBTQIA+ community, Pride month is a chance to be out, loud and proud. But in the United States, there's been an uneasy quiet hanging over this June. Big brands who once didn't think twice about cashing in on the pink dollar have scaled back support.
So how did the US get here?
Justin Ellis, criminology lecturer at the University of the Newcastle's School of Law and Justice, says compared to the 1970's anti-LGBTQIA+ crusade led by Florida campaigner Anita Bryant, the issues now are "more multifaceted." "This creates greater opportunity to confuse issues," he says. "For example, over drag queen story time with transgender identity."
He also points to a growing organisation of anti-LGBTQIA+ groups on social media — whether that is fringe political actors, extremist conspiracy theorists or local activists — who use the platforms to coordinate the "amplification of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment" and misinformation. "What they also might be doing — and this might be inadvertent or intentional — is spreading anti-LGBTQIA+ information across social networks," he says. "Which moderation is not adequately addressing, and timeliness is one of the issues there."
Notably, Dr Ellis points to billionaire Elon Musk's October 2022 takeover of X — formerly Twitter — which saw the mention of grooming slurs against the LGBTQIA+ community jump by 119 per cent, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The social media sphere also saw anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment being taken up by foreign actors ahead of US election campaigns to sow division, according to Meta's head of Cybersecurity Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. Traditional cable media too shares some blame.
Out of the three major cable news outlets — MSNBC, CNN and Fox News — the latter only spent two hours and 11 minutes in 2023 covering specific bans or restrictions on health care for LGBTQIA+ people. Despite this, nearly half of Fox News' segments on legislation included anti-trans rhetoric or endorsed the legislation in question, Media Matters for America reports. In comparison, MSNBC and CNN, in 42 per cent and 36 per cent of their segments respectively, cited research to counter anti-LGBTQIA+ misinformation.
Dr Justin Ellis is affiliated with the University of Newcastle. This article was written by Tessa Flemming and was originally published by ABC News. Read the full article here.
Contact
- Justin Ellis
- Email: justin.ellis@newcastle.edu.au
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