TALLAHASSEE – Research that analyzed social media posts finds that hateful references to gays, lesbians, and different LGBTQ individuals surged online after Florida handed a law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identification in kindergarten by way of third grade.
References to pedophiles and ” grooming ” rose by greater than 400 p.c within the month after Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” measure was accredited, based on a report launched Wednesday by the Human Rights Campaign, one of many nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy teams, and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit group that tracks online extremism.
The measure, handed by the Florida Legislature on March 8 and signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 28, says faculty lecturers can’t focus on gender identification or sexual orientation with their younger college students. Supporters have mentioned choices about speaking about sexual orientation must be left to oldsters, not lecturers.
Critics have mentioned the law sends a hateful message about LGBTQ individuals.
The researchers who compiled the report discovered that the five hundred most-viewed tweets that talked about “grooming” had been considered greater than 72 million occasions between January and July.
Influential conservatives drove a lot of the rise, the researchers discovered, by way of their very own posts or by liking or forwarding posts from others. They embody U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, who has equated criticism of the invoice with pedophilia itself.
“If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming,” Pushaw tweeted in March.
Pushaw later defended her feedback, saying she didn’t single out LGBTQ individuals in her feedback or intend to assault them. She mentioned criticism of Florida’s law is deceptive and political.
The authors of the report warn that the elevated anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is inciting hatred that would result in violence. They say social media platforms should do extra to implement their very own insurance policies on hate speech. Researchers mentioned they reported 100 of essentially the most hateful tweets they noticed to Twitter. Only one was eliminated.