Bella Ramsey, Jamie Lee Curtis, and other celebs call on social media bosses to stop anti-trans hate
The spread of disinformation surrounding the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly our trans brothers and sisters, is at an all-time high. Anti-trans hate is so rampant, it is unavoidable.
However, GLAAD and other prominent LGBTQIA+ celebrities and allies have decided to stand up against this hatred. Today GLAAD announced that more than 250 actors, notables, and other leaders signed a public letter created by GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The public letter calls on prominent social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter to better enforce hate speech, harassment, misinformation, and other existing content policies aimed at protecting transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming users and all LGBTQ people.
Notable celebrities that have signed the public letter include Bella Ramsey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jinkx Monsoon, Laverne Cox, and Patti LuPone. The full list can be seen over on GLAAD’s official website.
The letter starts by declaring that there has been a “massive systemic failure to prohibit hate, harassment, and malicious anti-LGBTQ disinformation on your platforms,” pointing out a large number of anti-trans hatred via advertisements as well as high-follower anti-LGBTQ hate accounts. The hatred for transgender, non-binary, and non-conforming individuals has escalated to the point of bomb threats and real-life violence, and even has a direct hand in the forming of harmful legislation. This letter from LGBTQIA+ celebrities and allies calls on social media bosses to address this hatred on their platforms.
“This disinformation and hate, inadequately moderated on your platforms, plays an outsized role in the sharp increase in real-world anti-transgender targeting and violence,” the letter states. “As documented by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in 2022, this is particularly the case when it comes to the online extremists leading proactive coordinated campaigns of hate and lies about gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth.”
The letter goes on to call for a meeting between social media bosses and community leaders and creators so that the two can work together and form a plan to address anti-trans disinformation and content.
According to GLAAD’s official Platform Scorecard in 2023’s SMSI, Twitter was found to be the most harmful and dangerous platform for LGBTQIA+ individuals to be on, with it also being the only platform whose scores declined from the previous year’s reports – a result that may not be all too surprising considering who is currently in charge of the platform. Even so, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have also been noted to be failing “their commitments to LGBTQ users with regard to safety, privacy, and expression.”
“It’s about time that social media CEOs hear from leaders on their platforms whose content and creativity drive profits and revenue for them. It’s clear these creators and celebrities recognize that social media companies should be taking urgent action to address the pervasiveness and severity of viral hate and misinformation about LGBTQ, trans and gender nonconforming users, but instead such anti-LGBTQ content drives profits for the companies and is too often met with inaction.” GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis shared. “You can draw a direct line from online hate and misinformation about trans people to the hundreds of anti-trans bills across the U.S. as well as the rise in violence against LGBTQ people. Until social media platforms take real action, our community continues to be at risk.”
About The Author
