An Ongoing Battle for Safety: The Recent Rise in LGBTQ+ Hate

    On June 6th, 2023 the Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans.  

    Seven years prior, June 26th, 2015, was a positive turning point for the United States regarding acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. In the Obergefell v. Hodges case, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could legally marry in all 50 U.S. states. However, despite such massive recognition and a rise in support from most people living in the U.S. at the time, the Human Rights Campaign had expressed concerns about over 100 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were being introduced in several states. This was only a warning for what was to come for the community. 

    Today, LGBTQ+ people living in the U.S. are facing a crisis. The American Civil Liberties Union has been keeping track of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have been introduced, passed, defeated, or are advancing in the U.S. and shows 558 bills as of November 15th, 2024. According to the Human Rights Campaign, which looked over the most recent FBI hate crime data from 2023, there were 2,402 incidents targeting a victim’s sexual orientation and 547 against a victim’s gender identity. These numbers increased in comparison to the 1,947 sexual orientation and 469 gender identity incidents in 2022. In a 2023 interview with 22,000 adults, the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for policies that would protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in housing, public accommodation, and housing dropped from 80% to 76% and support for marriage equality dropped from 69% to 67%. A recent Gallup poll found that in 2024, support for marriage equality has dropped from its record high of 71% recorded in 2023 to now 69%. While these numbers still show a majority of support, the decline is important to examine considering the implications for the LGBTQ+ community and the rise in hate crimes. 

    In their report, the Public Religion Research Institute also found that there was a strong correlation between Christian nationalists and opposing LGBTQ+ protections. Brittanica defines Christian Nationalism as “Ideology that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation’s character. Advocates of Christian nationalism consider their view of Christianity to be an integral part of their country’s identity and want the government to promote—or even enforce—the religion’s position within it.” The description states that it includes policing “immoral” behavior which often includes LGBTQ+ people. 

    It’s not a mindset held by every Christian though, and in fact, Christianity Today (an evangelical Christian magazine) shared an insightful article about Christian Nationalism, what it is, and why it’s a problem. They note “Scholars are almost unanimous that nationalist governments tend to become authoritarian and oppressive in practice. For example, in past generations, to the extent that the United States had a quasi-established official religion of Protestantism, it did not respect true religious freedom. Worse, the United States and many individual states used Christianity as a prop to support slavery and segregation.” Along with that, according to a study conducted by the Williams Institute, “About two-thirds or more of Catholics and Protestants/Christians opposed the use of religious beliefs to discriminate against LGBTQ people across all three domains.” 

GLAAD 2024 Social
Media Safety Index
Findings

    Another problem LGBTQ+ people face in all of this is the struggle to find safety on major social media platforms. Since GLAAD launched its Social Media Safety Program in 2021, which tracks the safety of social media sites for LGBTQ+ people, sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter)  have consistently scored low. TikTok held a D+ (67%) in 2024 as the highest grade so far. For X and Facebook, the pressure on this issue became worse in 2022 when the Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report that showed a 406% increase in tweet discourse regarding LGBTQ+ people being “groomers”, X failing to act on 99% of the 100 most-viewed hate tweets, and identified 59 ads promoting the “grooming” idea about LGBTQ+ people running on Facebook. X CEO Elon Musk attempted to sue the Center for Countering Hate after this report was released, but it was thrown out by a judge. 

    The rhetoric around LGBTQ+ people being “groomers” is one that has been around for a long time, but the Center for Countering Hate report and an article by the Anti-Defamation League note that this increase in the use of the term heightened online in 2022 after the Florida “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill passed. The Center for Countering Hate report also found that influential conservatives including Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, were some of the people making and reposting these tweets, pushing their reach even further online. It has been reported in the past that Marjorie Taylor Green is a self-proclaimed Christian Nationalist and that both DeSantis and Boebert have shared Christian nationalist ideals as well. 

    In the same vein of politics and social media, X CEO Elon Musk was recently appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by President-elect Donald Trump. Similarly, in 2016 Steve Bannon, former chairman of the Breitbart News website, was named the White House Chief Strategist for President Donald Trump. Of Steve Bannon, the Human Rights Campaign wrote in an article “While running Breitbart before Trump’s election, he published countless stories attacking LGBTQ people and activists, and, most virulently, transgender people.” X CEO Elon Musk is not unlike Bannon in that he, too, has published posts attacking transgender people on his platform.

Examples of Musk's posts

    There appears to be an overlapping going on of social media, Christian Nationalism, and politics all playing a part in the recent push of anti-LGBTQ+ hate. Governmental control is being handed over to someone who works on a website that enables anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric (for the second time in recent U.S. history) such as grooming allegations that were pushed by prominent politicians who happen to share similar ideals with a portion of the country who have also been identified as being anti-LGBTQ+. It’s a vicious cycle that’s feeding off of each other. 

    The effects of hate and discriminatory policies have significant impacts on members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly LGBTQ+ people of color who are at an even higher risk of facing discrimination. Already, members of the LGBTQ+ community are at an increased risk of developing mental health conditions compared to straight cisgender people. In an article from the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, it’s stated that “The LGBTQ community faces specific stressors rooted in societal discrimination, bias, and marginalization, impacting mental health significantly. Persistent discrimination, exclusion, and heteronormative expectations are identified as social determinants that contribute to heightened stress levels, resulting in increased rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.” 

    And while it’s difficult to find statistics on LGBTQ+ adult mental health, a survey conducted by the Trevor Project found that in 2024, 39% of LGBTQ+ youth considered suicide, 49% had been bullied, 90% felt their mental wellbeing was impacted by recent politics, and 50% of those who wanted mental health support were unable to get it. They also found that “LGBTQ+ young people who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than half the rate of those who reported living in very unaccepting communities.” 

    Something that is severely lacking in the United States is a cohesive federal law that protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, which is where the Equality Act would come in. The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in 2021, was introduced to Congress in 2023 but has yet to pass into law. It would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation in housing, businesses, public schools, employment, and more. While social media and hate speech are protected under the First Amendment, in an article from Albany Law Review, author Max Sevor argues that defamation law may help LGBTQ+ people online who face the “groomer” allegations that were showing up on Facebook and X. 

    LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance have come a long way just in the last thirty years alone. The progress that has been made for the community cannot be ignored, erased, or forgotten. But the recent increase in hate crimes and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and the decrease in acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights can’t be ignored either. The future is unknown, but one can only hope that these trends are put to rest and allow every member of the LGBTQ+ community to have access to rights and protections in order to lead happy lives.