LGBTQ+ communities around the globe are facing complex challenges. Not least among them is the ongoing co-option of LGBTQ+ issues by politicians and news media, some of whom amplify antagonism towards diverse sexual orientation and gender identity with mis- and disinformation that in turn generates exposure for politicians, and revenue for media companies through simplistic media framing of complex issues.
This is true in the UK, which continues to fall down the list of countries in the annual ‘Rainbow map’, which documents the LGBTQ-friendliness of countries in Europe based on their legal and policy situation. This is at a time when internet manipulation is generating more and more mis- and disinformation that might be included in generative AI source material for chatbots, and as digital platforms continue to allow inaccurate information to circulate through social networks.
In England and Wales, recorded hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose dramatically from 2020/21 to 2021/22 (from 18,239 to 25,639 offences) – the largest annual increase of sexual orientation offences since the time series began in 2012. In the year ending March 2023, the figure for recorded hate crimes based on sexual orientation was 24,102, which marks a drop, but is a period in which police were given interim guidance on the recording of non-hate crime incidents, and which may have impacted police recording of hate crime offences. There were 4,262 recorded hate crimes against transgender identity in England and Wales in 2021/22, up from 2,728 in 2020/21. In the year ending March 2023, 4,732 hate crimes against transgender people were recorded – a rise of 11 per cent on the previous year. There have been suggestions from some media commentators that this increase may be due to comments in the media and by politicians.
The threshold for what constitutes a hate crime in the US differs from that in the UK. However, the trend there between 2021 and 2022 was upwards for recorded hate crimes against sexual orientation and gender identity, with 1,944 hate crimes against sexual orientation recorded in 2022 (up from 1,707 in 2021), and 469 hate crimes against gender identity recorded in 2022, up from 342 in 2021. Between June 2022 and April 2023, at least 356 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents have included demonstrations aiming to intimidate organisers and attendees at drag shows, and bomb threats against hospitals that offer health care to LGBTQ+ people. There were 305 incidents of harassment, 40 incidents of vandalism and 11 incidents of assault. Nearly half of all incidents (49 per cent) were perpetrated wholly or substantially by individuals associated with extremist groups.
In Australia, co-option of transgender issues by a motley crew of pundits and politicians continues amid a rise in extremism seen across western liberal democracies. Attacks in the media on mainstream drag performers and prominent gay politicians in Australia are indicative of what is happening at local councils where drag queen story time childhood literacy events have been postponed or cancelled because of threats to the safety of performers, audiences and staff.
This is now a global issue.
This data and wider context show us several things. One is the durability of stigma, which can be invoked to denigrate and marginalise targeted groups, which is what we are seeing with child ‘groomer’ accusations through mis- and disinformation against same-sex attracted men, but which also targets broader sexual orientation and gender diversity as deviant. Simplistic, adversarial media framing amplifies the hate, while profiting from it through generating further conflict in a permissive political environment under the auspices of unqualified freedom of speech protections.
At the same time, by placing advertisements next to anti-LGBTQ+ content, digital platforms profit, as seen with the viral ‘groomer’ hashtag after the killing of five people and injury of 19 others at a gay and lesbian nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022.
Another is that despite the generally more tolerant approach of the UK and Australia to aspects of sexual and gender diversity in comparison with many parts of the US, such is the reach of global media that US extremism is making its way across jurisdictional lines, often with the tacit support of digital platforms through inadequate moderation that puts profit before safety.
The role of the traditional media in perpetuating this stigma is not always clear. Yet LGBTQ+ individuals are bearing the brunt of poor reporting and moderation standards, which have real-world impacts through vilification, harassment and assault.
Even more concerning is the widespread adoption of generative AI chatbots which draw on vast amounts of online data to generate information. That data is only as reliable as its source information and is increasingly likely to include anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and disinformation that overlaps with other forms of hate, including antisemitism and racism. Unless concerted efforts are made across digital platforms and traditional media to address misinformation and disinformation, including timely removal of hateful expression from digital platforms, machine learning is going to become more dangerous. Chatbots are already generating offensive anti-LGBTQ+ content, and cybersecurity experts have made clear the increased likelihood of risks from chatbot ‘prompt injection’ attacks that can generate hate speech towards minorities and disclose confidential information. Within this context there is an urgent need to mitigate the risks of anti-LGBTQ+ bias in language learning models used in generative AI.
The enactment of the UK Online Safety bill, and the role of the Australian eSafety Commissioner in holding digital platforms to account provides hope in the regulation of digital media to challenge and address hate crime, as does the push for safety by design that seeks to mitigate the harms of emergent technologies through pre-empting risk. But many of the structural harms noted above are coming from digital platforms that are almost two decades old. While news media and digital platforms prioritise conflict, and profit from it, they have a responsibility to minimise harm. A fairer balance needs to be struck, but whether traditional media and digital platforms are really willing to engage in a media transformation that would present a durable and concerted response to anti-LGBTQ+ hate remains to be seen.
Justin Ellis is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Newcastle. He leads research on ‘digiqueer’ criminology, which considers the impact of digital media technologies on LGBTQ agency.
Representation, Resistance and the Digiqueer by Justin Ellis is available here for 45.00 on the Bristol University Press website.
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