We The People

Category: Top Stories

  • For Anita Bryant, there will be no orange juice in hell

    I know you’re not supposed to say anything bad about the dead; however, when Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson died, I broke decorum, and with Anita Bryant’s death I shall do the same. When I heard that she died, all I could think about was that Satan himself greeted her with a pie in the face upon her entrance to hell.

    Bryant was once celebrated as a singer and beauty queen, but those of us who are old enough remember her, nightmarishly, as a vehement anti-LGBTQ+ activist in the 1970s. She went on a horrible antigay crusade that inflicted significant harm on countless people and left an indelible stain on her legacy. 

    I’m being nice. She had no legacy other than as someone who espoused and preached hate. That is all she will be remembered for.

    Bryant first gained national attention as a pop singer and the 1958 Miss Oklahoma, later becoming a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission. I can vividly recall her hawking orange juice on television. She and that juice were a ubiquitous presence, and then she and those oranges turned rotten. 

    Her transition from entertainer to activist began in 1977 when she launched the “Save Our Children” campaign, and I know this from deep, dark memory. That was the year my father died, in January, and at 12 years old going on 13, I was starting to realize I was gay. And that was something that I thought was forbidden, partly because of Bryant.

    Her initiative aimed to repeal a Miami-Dade County, Fla., ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, making the county one of the first to enact such protections. 

    Bryant’s campaign was steeped in inflammatory rhetoric, portraying LGBTQ+ people as threats to children and society. She asserted that the ordinance would lead to the “recruitment” of children into homosexuality, a baseless claim that fueled public fear and prejudice. 

    As a kid who always watched the evening news — once a news junkie, always a news junkie — I remember how awful she made me feel. She was demonizing this evolving feeling and who I was, and that was something very bad. A priest’s abuse only compounded the situation. I kept wondering why this woman who drank orange juice was making me swallow something so ruinous.

    The success of the “Save Our Children” campaign emboldened Bryant to take her crusade nationwide. That’s when she started appearing on the CBS News With Walter Cronkite — my preferred news program. She supported initiatives to prevent queer couples from adopting children and backed the Briggs Initiative in California, which sought to ban LGBTQ+ individuals from teaching in public schools. 

    These efforts propagated harmful stereotypes and legitimized discrimination, leading to increased stigmatization and marginalization of LGBTQ+ communities across the United States. You have to know something about that time. There were no queer national leaders, no one to look up to; it was the antithesis of what we have today.

    That’s why Bryant, who was a celebrity, was getting so much attention. It’s because she could, and since she came into your living room often, drinking all-American orange juice, most people felt comfortable with her venom. 

    But courageous people began to step forward and fight back. Bryant’s activism made her a target for protest. A notable incident occurred on October 14, 1977, when gay rights activist Thom Higgins threw a pie in her face during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This act of defiance became emblematic of the resistance against her oppressive agenda. 

    I remember when that happened. She looked foolish, and I dare say that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. It was as if Bryant was suddenly exposed. But the damage had already been done.

    Suddenly the sourpuss that was Bryant didn’t squeeze in with the sweetness of orange juice.

    The repercussions of Bryant’s actions were profound. Her campaigns not only rolled back legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals but also perpetuated a climate of fear and hostility. Many LGBTQ+ people faced increased discrimination, harassment, and violence as a result of the prejudices she espoused. The psychological toll was immense, contributing to feelings of isolation and despair within the community.

    And that included a teenage boy from Pittsburgh.

    In the years following her anti-LGBTQ+ crusade, Bryant’s personal and professional life suffered significantly. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1980, a development that led to her being shunned by the same Christian fundamentalist audiences that once supported her. 

    Then it seemed all her hate started to backfire on her. Financial difficulties ensued, with failed business ventures and bankruptcies marking her later years. She attempted to revive her career through various means, including opening Anita Bryant’s Music Mansion in Branson, Mo., but these efforts were largely unsuccessful. 

    In other words, she sucked all of the juice out of her orange with her despicable words and actions.

    Adding a layer of personal irony to her legacy, Bryant’s granddaughter Sarah Green came out as gay and announced her intention to marry her same-sex partner. When I heard about that, my oh my, did I have a good laugh. Talk about getting hit with a pie in the face!

    Her story, at its core, is a cautionary tale about the perils of bigotry. Her relentless campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights inflicted widespread harm, fostering an environment of discrimination and fear. And her rabid outspokenness was what people remember, not the orange juice.

    It’s funny, but there was a time early in my life when I stopped drinking orange juice. In fact, the last time I did was maybe 30 years ago, when I went to an orange grove in Florida. You picked oranges from the trees and then made them into fresh squeezed orange juice.

    I instantly turned it into a screwdriver to make it more palatable. So Anita, good riddance, and good luck finding an orange tree in hell.

    Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and Allied community. Visit advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.

  • Meta’s new hate speech guidelines permit users to say LGBTQ people are mentally ill

    Meta will allow its billions of social media users to accuse people of being mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity, among broader changes it made to its moderation policies and practices Tuesday.

    The company’s new guidelines prohibit insults about someone’s intellect or mental illness on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as have previous iterations. However, the latest guidelines now include a caveat for accusing LGBTQ people of being mentally ill because they are gay or transgender. 

    “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird,’” the revised company guidelines read.

    The new guidelines around hate speech are part of Meta’s broader major changes regarding how it moderates online speech on its platforms. On Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it will replace its fact-checking program, which has relied on trusted organizational partners, with a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes. X’s system allows users to submit suggested “notes” on other people’s content, and then certain users vote on whether or not the notes are publicly displayed. Zuckerberg cited “recent elections” and “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.”

    The long list of changes to the new hate speech guidelines include removing rules that forbid insults about a person’s appearance based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease. Meta also scrapped policies that prohibited expressions of hate against a person or a group on the basis of their protected class and that banned users from referring to transgender or nonbinary people as “it.”

    GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, denounced the changes.

    “Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives,” President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.”

    A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    CEOs and business leaders in tech and beyond are broadening their efforts to woo President-elect Donald Trump. Meta is among the several tech companies and executives — including Amazon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — that donated $1 million to Trump’s second inaugural fund within the last several weeks. Meta also announced Tuesday that UFC’s Dana White, a longtime Trump supporter, would join its board.

  • Judge scraps Biden’s Title IX rules, reversing expansion of protections for LGBTQ students

    The Biden administration’s Title IX rules expanding protections for LGBTQ students have been struck down nationwide after a federal judge in Kentucky found they overstepped the president’s authority.

    In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scrapped the entire 1,500-page regulation after deciding it was “fatally” tainted by legal shortcomings. The rule had already been halted in 26 states after a wave of legal challenges by Republican states.

    President-elect Donald Trump previously promised to end the rules “on day one” and made anti-transgender themes a centerpiece of his campaign.

    The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

    Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called it a rejection of the Biden administration’s “relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology.”

    “Because the Biden rule is vacated altogether, President Trump will be free to take a fresh look at our Title IX regulations when he returns to office,” Skrmetti said in a statement.

    The Education Department did not immediately comment on the decision.

    The Biden administration ignited controversy when it finalized the new rules last year. The regulation expanded Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding discrimination based on sex in education, to also prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It also widened the definition of harassment to include a broader range of misconduct.

    Civil rights advocates hailed it as a victory, saying it gave LGBTQ students new recourse against discrimination. But it drew outrage from conservatives who said it could be used to protect transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

    The rule didn’t explicitly address athletics and mostly detailed how schools and colleges were required to respond to cases of discrimination and sexual assault. A separate proposal dealing with transgender athletes in sports was put on the back burner and later revoked after it became a focal point of Trump’s campaign.

    In his decision, Reeves found the Education Department overstepped its authority by expanding the scope of Title IX.

    There’s nothing in the 1972 law suggesting that it should cover any more than it has since Congress created it, Reeves wrote. He called it an “attempt to bypass the legislative process and completely transform Title IX.”

    The judge also found that it violated free speech rights by requiring teachers to use pronouns aligning with a student’s gender identity.

    “The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner,” Reeves wrote.

    Rather than carve out certain aspects of the rule, Reeves decided it was best to toss the regulation in its entirety and revert to a previous interpretation of Title IX. He said his decision will “simply ’cause a return to the status quo’ that existed for more than 50 years prior to its effective date.”

    Among the biggest critics of the rule was Betsy DeVos, former education secretary during Trump’s first term. On the social media site X, she wrote that the “radical, unfair, illegal, and absurd Biden Title IX re-write is GONE.”

    Bill Cassidy, R-La., chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said Biden’s rule “betrayed the original intent of Title IX by removing longstanding protections that ensured fairness for women and girls.”

    “With President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress, we will ensure women and girls have every opportunity to succeed on the field and in the classroom,” Cassidy said in a statement.

  • 10 arrested for writing gay erotica in China as part of nationwide crackdown

    Government officials in China are cracking down on erotic fiction writers and their online distribution networks, according to multiple news reports and social media posts, with dozens of writers reportedly arrested in one province and facing years in prison.

    Many of the writers specialize in danmei, a style depicting gay romance and sex similar to Japanese manga.  

    In December, Chinese news site Shuiping Jiyuan reported police had detained more than 50 writers in Anhui province, west of Shanghai, since June. Sentences have ranged up to four and a half years in prison.

    At least 10 people have been sentenced for posting gay-themed erotica online, according to open records from the Jixi County People’s Court in Anhui, the South China Morning Post reports.

    A “special task force” carried out the arrests of the writers, many of whom published on the Taiwan-based adult fiction website Haitang Literature, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily News and Taiwan’s Pacific Daily newspapers reported.

    “One of my friends is an author, who was released on bail, called me from a new phone and told us to be prepared,” one writer posted to the gaming bulletin board NGA, cited by the AO3 fan-fiction site on Reddit.

    “Later, others also reported that their friends had been affected,” the post recounted. “We compared details and confirmed that this is a nationwide crackdown. Moreover, the website’s [Chinese] distributor is indeed in trouble and can’t be reached.”

    China’s state-controlled media haven’t reported on the arrests.

    “Disseminating obscene electronic messages” has long been illegal under the authoritarian Chinese regime. A 1997 law defines obscene material as “publications, films, video and audio recordings, and images containing depictions of sexual acts.” 

    In 2010, a Chinese court ruling determined erotic material that gains more than 5,000 clicks can be deemed a criminal offense.

    How the writers are sentenced under Chinese law depends on how much money they make. Those who earn more than 250,000 yuan (US$34,500) from selling erotic materials can face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

    Sentences have been reduced, however, if the writers can pay back all or a portion of the money they’ve made selling their work online. Family members have posted to social media and crowdfunding sites in an effort to raise funds to get their loved ones an early release.

    Erotic literature has long been a target in the Chinese government’s crusade defending “social morals” in the Communist country, despite the fact there is rarely an obvious victim in such cases, said Chen Zhaonan, a Guangdong-based lawyer. He argued against the government’s practice of basing sentencing on potentially inflated sales figures gleaned from the erotica websites.

    In 2018, a woman using the pen name Tianyi was jailed for 10 and a half years for publishing a novel that was filled with “graphic depictions of male homosexual sex,” according to local media reports. It reportedly sold 7,000 copies.

  • Gay Rep. Mark Takano to head the Congressional Equality Caucus

    Out Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) will chair the Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC), the group of Congressmembers that advances LGBTQ+ equality. Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) was the previous CEC chair.

    “Over the next several years, we will see a constant barrage of attacks on the rights and dignity of the queer community — especially against our transgender siblings — by the Trump administration and the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate,” Takano said in a statement. 

    “As Chair of the Equality Caucus, I will lead our coalition of openly-LGBTQI+ members and our allies in the fight to both defend the queer community and push equality forward, including by reintroducing the Equality Act.” The Equality Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal anti-discrimination legislation, banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination at the federal level in a number of areas, including housing, public accommodations, and credit. It is unlikely to pass the House because Republicans have a majority.

    Takano, a high school English teacher for 23 years, became the first out Asian American and the first out person of color in Congress after he was first elected in 2012. He was outed by a Republican while running for Congress in 1994, who called him a “homosexual liberal.” Today, he is the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the first vice chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

    Takano told LGBTQ Nation last year that he hopes Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) will be “tremendous” in helping Congress pass pro-LGBTQ+ legislation “by humanizing trans people.”

    “Sarah McBride made the case with her Republican colleagues by, in a way, disarming them because of who she is,” he said, referring to her tenure in the Delaware Senate. 

    The CEC was founded in 2008 by then-Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA). While its membership is not limited to any party, the fact that members of the CEC must support equal rights for LGBTQ+ people resulted in almost every House Democrat in the last session of Congress – 195 out of 212 – being a member but no House Republican joining.

    The out LGBTQ+ members of Congress are all co-chairs, and Reps.-elect McBride, Julie Johnson (D-TX), and Emily Randall (D-WA) will be joining as co-chairs as well.

    Pocan celebrated Takano taking over the CEC in a statement. 

    “I look forward to continuing to work with him — and every member of the Equality Caucus — in defending the rights of all Americans from Republican extremists in every branch of government,” Pocan said.

  • Nancy Mace’s anti-trans Capitol bathroom rules didn’t make the House rules package

    South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace’s latest attack on transgenderrights has hit a wall. Her proposal to bar transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity in House-controlled spaces didn’t make the cut in the rules package for the 119th Congress. Leaving the measure out of the package marks a setback for Mace’s culture war efforts, even as other anti-LGBTQ+ priorities remain front and center.

    Mace introduced her bathroom resolution last November, admittedly targeting Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the first out trans member of Congress. LGBTQ+ advocates and Democratic lawmakers slammed the proposal as not only discriminatory but also unenforceable. House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, has previously stated that transgender women must use the men’s bathroom. McBride said at the time that she would comply with House rules. 

    The Advocate reached out to Johnson’s office for clarification on why the measure wasn’t included.

    The rules package, which largely mirrors policies from the last Congress, did include one significant anti-trans provision: a measure redefining Title IX compliance in athletics to base eligibility solely on sex assigned at birth. This codification, a key Republican priority, was coupled with the first bill in the package, which explicitly targets transgender athletes.

    “It is not surprising to me that an anti-trans bill will be the first, if not one of the first bills they put forward,” McBride told The Advocate. “It’s going to be important for us to acknowledge the harm that anti-LGBTQ legislation presents, but also to pull back the curtain on what these attacks are attempting to do, which is to distract from issues that impact our economy and worker protections. These policies harm not just LGBTQ people but everyone who believes the federal government should improve lives rather than wage culture wars.”

    The U.S. House voted on the new rules package after electing Mike Johnson speaker again and swearing in legislators.

  • McDonald’s Caves To Anti-LGBTQ/Diversity Campaign

    Four years after launching a push for more diversity in its ranks, McDonald’s is ending some of its diversity practices, citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions.

    McDonald’s is the latest big company to shift its tactics in the wake of the 2023 ruling and a conservative backlash against diversity, equity and inclusionprograms. Walmart, John Deere, Harley-Davidson and others rolled back their DEI initiatives last year. 

    McDonald’s said Monday it will retire specific goals for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels. It also intends to end a program that encourages its suppliers to develop diversity training and to increase the number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks.

    McDonald’s said it will also pause “external surveys.” The burger giant didn’t elaborate, but several other companies, including Lowe’s and Ford Motor Co., suspended their participation in an annual survey by the Human Rights Campaign that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.

    McDonald’s, which has its headquarters in Chicago, rolled out a series of diversity initiatives in 2021 after a spate of sexual harassment lawsuits filed by employees and a lawsuit alleging discrimination brought by a group of Black former McDonald’s franchise owners.

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    “As a world-leading brand that considers inclusion one of our core values, we will accept nothing less than real, measurable progress in our efforts to lead with empathy, treat people with dignity and respect, and seek out diverse points of view to drive better decision-making,” McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski wrote in a LinkedIn post at the time.

    But McDonald’s said Monday that the “shifting legal landscape” after the Supreme Court decision and the actions of other corporations caused it to take a hard look at its own policies.

    A shifting political landscape may also have played a role. President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Trump tapped Stephen Miller, a former adviser who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies,as his incoming deputy chief of policy.

    Vice President-elect JD Vance introduced a bill in the Senate last summer to end such programs in the federal government. 

    Robby Starbuck, a conservative political commentator who has threatened consumer boycotts of prominent consumer brands that don’t retreat from their diversity programs, said Monday on X that he recently told McDonald’s he would be doing a story on its “woke policies.” 

    McDonald’s said it had been considering updates to its policies for several months and planned to time the announcement to the start of this year.

    In an open letter to employees and franchisees, McDonald’s senior leadership team said it remains committed to inclusion and believes a diverse workforce is a competitive advantage. The company said 30% of its U.S. leaders are members of underrepresented groups, up from 29% in 2021. McDonald’s previously committed to reaching 35% by the end of this year.

    McDonald’s said it has achieved one of the goals it announced in 2021: gender pay equity at all levels of the company. It also said it met three years early a goal of having 25% of total supplier spending go to diverse-owned businesses.

    McDonald’s said it would continue to support efforts that ensure a diverse base of employees, suppliers and franchisees, but its diversity team will now be referred to as the Global Inclusion Team. The company said it would also continue to report its demographic information.

    The McDonald’s Hispanic Owner-Operators Association said it had no comment on the policy change Monday. A message seeking comment was left with the National Black McDonald’s Operators Association.

  • House Republicans reveal their top legislative priority: Attacking transgender rights

    Earlier this week, Republicans in the United States House of Representatives released their new rules package, which will allow anti-trans legislation to be fast-tracked.

    Listed under section 5, the anti-trans provision is listed as one of several bills that will be considered and debated within the House during the upcoming session, to be voted on “as read”; that is, no amendments that could slow down the voting process. No bill number is given, but the description of the bill in the rules package reads, “The bill to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

    The description does not explain how the bill defines biological sex nor does it discuss how it would account for intersex individuals. It is also unclear if this would only extend to athletics or to other areas of Title IX, which would affect issues like restroom usage and non-discrimination protections, according to independent journalists Erin Reed and Mady Castigan.

    This bill is listed among 11 others, the majority of which aim to expand what would qualify an immigrant for deportation. Others attack doctors who fail to provide the “proper degree of care” for fetuses that survive an abortion or forbid the International Criminal Court from targeting a “protected person” of the United States and allies.

    This provision is the first one listed out of 12, signaling the intent of House Republicans to attack transgender rights at the federal level. There is recent precedent for this – the recently passed 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that provides funding for the military, contains a provision that bans “sterilizing” gender affirming care for minors. Eight-one Democrats voted in favor along with most Republicans and it was signed into law by President Joe Biden, making this the first anti-LGBTQ+ federal legislation passed in over 30 years.

    A separate provision, proposed by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), would have removed this section. However, it was shot down by Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

    “We’ve seen this playbook before,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) during the debate of this provision. “For decades Republicans attacked the right to abortion. They slowly chipped away, state by state, law by law, and today there is no Constitutional right to abortion.”

    “We must fight off efforts by politicians to force themselves into exam rooms. They think that they know better than trained healthcare providers and patients. They do not. The only expertise they are exhibiting is an expertise in oppression, suppression, and repression of health care freedom, and their attacks will not stop there. Freedom isn’t lost all at once. It happens one inch at a time. And as the Senate author of the Trans Bill of Rights, this is an inch that we cannot give.”

    Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) demanded anti-trans provisions to the rules package to restrict transgender women from using women’s facilities at the Capitol complex. However, that provision is not in the resolution.

    McBride, rather than speaking out against the bathroom ban, chose to comply with it and use the restroom in her office while other trans people who work at or visit the Capitol may have to follow the new rule.

  • Meta blocked teens from seeing LGBTQ+ content on Instagram: report

    Meta, the parent company of Instagram, is under fire for its treatment of LGBTQ+ users after journalist Taylor Lorenz revealed that the platform had restricted LGBTQ-related hashtags for months. The issue, reported in Lorenz’s Substack publication User Mag on Monday, has sparked criticism of Meta’s content moderation practices and repeated failures to support marginalized communities.

    Lorenz, a journalist known for her reporting on technology and social media in The New York Times and, most recently, The Washington Post, uncovered that Instagram blocked users—especially teenagers—from searching hashtags like #gay, #lesbian, #trans, and #nonbinary under its “sensitive content” policy. The restrictions, which were in effect for months, were applied by default to teen accounts. When teens searched these hashtags, they were met with a blank screen and a prompt about Instagram’s content restrictions. Meta reversed the blocks only after Lorenz reached out for comment, User Mag reports.

    “These search terms and hashtags were mistakenly restricted,” a Meta spokesperson told Lorenz. “It’s important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome on Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies.” Meta added that it was investigating how the error occurred but provided no timeline for the investigation or concrete actions to prevent such mistakes in the future.

    “Meta categorizing LGBTQ hashtags as ‘sensitive content’ is an alarming example of censorship that should concern everyone,” Leanna Garfield, social media safety program manager at GLAAD, told Lorenz. “These platforms are lifelines for young LGBTQ+ people, and restricting this content isolates them further.”

    A GLAAD spokesperson also told The Advocate, “LGBTQ people all over the world, especially young people, use Instagram to express who they are and to find and be part of a community. A responsible and inclusive company would not build an algorithm that classifies some LGBTQ hashtags as ‘sensitive content,’ hiding helpful and age-appropriate content from young people by default.”

    The spokesperson added that whether it was an unintended mistake, “Meta should remedy this issue immediately, publicly apologize to its LGBTQ users, and test significant product updates before launch.” They added, “Everyone, not just LGBTQ people, should be deeply concerned about the larger implications of this kind of content suppression.”

    Garfield highlighted the damage that blocks like the one Meta had in place do.

    Related: Instagram Is Blocking LGBTQ+ Accounts: Report

    “For many LGBTQ people, especially youth, platforms like Instagram are crucial for self-discovery, community building, and accessing supportive information,” Garfield told User Mag. “By limiting access to LGBTQ content, Instagram may be inadvertently contributing to the isolation and marginalization of LGBTQ users.”

    Reports of such challenges on Instagram are not new. In September 2023, Mashable highlighted the issue of shadowbanning—when content is flagged as “non-recommendable” and hidden from non-followers. LGBTQ+ creators were disproportionately affected by these restrictions. Topher Taylor, a sexuality educator and creator, told Mashable that his content had been categorized as non-recommendable for years because of reports from bigoted users. “You will get more reports if you’re visibly queer,” he said. Meanwhile, mainstream accounts promoting explicit or suggestive content, such as those tied to celebrities or brands catering to heterosexual audiences, often bypass these restrictions.

    Related: Meta is failing its LGBTQ+ users, says new GLAAD report

    The controversy over restricted hashtags is the latest in a series of criticisms against Meta. Last year, a GLAAD report revealed that Meta had failed to moderate harmful anti-trans content across its platforms, including Instagram and Threads. The report detailed violent speech and harassment targeting transgender and nonbinary users, much of which remained live despite clear violations of Meta’s community guidelines.

    Meta also faced backlash in September for delaying the ban of far-right Republican Valentina Gomez, who used Instagram to spread antigay slurs and burn LGBTQ-themed books. In December, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted videos on Instagram using a transphobic slur to mock protesters opposing her anti-trans bathroom bill. Despite repeated reports from advocacy groups, Mace’s videos remain live on the platform.

    Critics argue that these incidents highlight systemic flaws in Meta’s approach to content moderation.

  • The newest LGBTQ+ members of Congress are fired up & ready to serve

    The 119th Congress officially began on January 3 and included among the new members are three history-making LGBTQ+ legislators: Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA), and Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX). 

    McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, received a slew of support from the Democratic Party and national LGBTQ+ rights organizations. A major part of her platform was protecting transgender rights in the United States.

    At only 34, McBride has already worked for the Human Rights Campaign and interned in the Obama-Biden White House. She was the first trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. She became the first trans person elected to a state senate in 2020, and in 2022, she became the first trans incumbent to win re-election in a state senate.

    In her farewell speech to the Delaware Senate, she declared that “small states can do big things.” 

    “As I head out and head to Washington, D.C.,” she continued, “I take with me the lessons that I have learned here. I take with me the hope that I have found here, that despite the rancor and the toxicity that we too often see in our politics, that we do genuinely have more in common than what divides us; that we can — and that we must — have conversations across disagreement, that we can have a politics of grace and a politics of progress.”

    Randall is now the first out LGBTQ+ Latina woman in Congress, as well as the first out LGBTQ+ Congressperson from Washington state. 

    Randall, a former Planned Parenthood fundraiser and member of her state senate’s Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, made women’s rights and economic issues central to her campaign.

    “What I learned in that job is that it is really important that we are bold about our commitment to reproductive freedom because it’s not just left-wing Democrats that care about abortion rights,” Randall told LGBTQ Nation in May about her time at Planned Parenthood. 

    “It’s swing voters in Arizona, and Nevada. It’s Republicans in many communities. It’s folks who understand that our bodily autonomy and our ability to make decisions about our families and our teachers is so important. And that’s been affirmed to me time after time in my elections here in my purple district.”

    Randall first ran for the state senate seat representing her hometown in 2018, when she defeated her “extreme MAGA” Republican opponent by a mere 102 votes. She was most recently the state Senate’s Majority Whip. 

    She also told LGBTQ Nation in May that if she won, she’d be most excited “to bring the voices of my neighbors with me to make tough decisions and make investments in building a brighter future for all of us.” 

    Johnson is now the first out LGBTQ+ congressperson from the South. In her 2018 state House race, Johnson unseated Matt Rinaldi, the anti-LGBTQ+ incumbent who wrote the state’s infamous anti-trans bathroom bill. In that role, she became the first lawmaker in the state to serve while married to a same-gender spouse. 

    Johnson’s landslide victory included earning the majority of votes in even some of the most Republican counties in her district. 

    “Julie Johnson is the representative Texas needs in Congress, where she’ll fiercely combat the bigotry and ignorance that’s taken over too much of our state politics,” said LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Annise Parker. 

    “Julie has an enviable record of advocating for her constituents in the state House, and there’s no doubt that experience will make her an invaluable member of the Texas congressional delegation. Whether she’s defending your right to reproductive health care or advancing public education, you can trust Julie to have your back in the tough fights ahead.”  

    In December, the Dallas Voice named Johnson “LGBTQ Texan of the Year,” calling her a “bright spot” in the “disastrous” overall results for Democrats.

    “Throughout her six years in the Texas Legislature, Johnson has remained a steadfast voice for common sense as well as for LGBTQ civil rights,” the Voice said. “And as we ready ourselves to keep up the fight in the face of so much fear and uncertainty, the knowledge that Johnson will be as much a steadfast force for sanity and progress in Washington as she was in Austin, provides a steadying hand and a ray of hope for the community.”