discussion Are homophobic "jokes" within the community enabling the recent rise of hate online?

[mystery]

I'm sure many have noticed how there has been a big wave of backlash towards the LGBTQ community online and in real life. Comments everywhere have been increasingly more toxic and mad, trans rights are heavily under attack everywhere and need more help than ever. Even LGBTQ topics that seemed like more of a non issue before have been causing very intense responses and attacks. Which leads me to think there is a regression happening in terms of acceptance.

But I also noticed that there has been an increasing amount of hate "jokes" within the community towards every aspect of it, tweets hating LGBTQ people that watch and support drag queens, or just people living their normal life. Most of those jokes using the same wording as conservatives and extreme homophobes. Honestly sometimes I can't even tell the difference between them and who is actually joking or not.

  
My worry is that the "jokes" are leading to an environment where people who actually hate LGBTQ individuals are able to feel more comfortable and open with their hate because others are doing it as well and it is just part of the lingo or whatever.
 

Look at this example from Twitter, the quotes of the original tweet are HORRENDOUS and full of disgusting jokes (one of them an absolutely horrid one about AIDS) and attacks for folks that just posted an normal picture:

He was just minding his business and celebrating his first pride:

Even Troye & others caught strays from the same people that claim to like them but call them something that someone should avoid becoming.

I am curious about what you guys think about this, is it actually contributing to the bigger wave of homophobic backlash that is happening? Hoping to have a nice and serious conversation.

Edited July 28, 2023 by mystery

[whitehotforever]

[KaledKalil]

Yeah, it's getting worst, but at the same time what do you expect from Twitter? A bunch of sad people trying to make "jokes", just to get that hit tweet for the sake of their 2 seconds of fame.  and those jokes are even made by "allies", if you want to call them that.

[mystery]

Just now, whitehotforever said:

Enjoy the grass while remaining ignorant.

[elevate]

I think it used to be that people within the community would make jokes about themselves for fun, use slurs amongst friends to reduce their intensity, and even drag other community members knowing it was all very contained / isolated. 

 

Now, with greater acceptance, we've invited a bunch of weirdos who know nothing about queers to speak on our behalf. Add this to social media (Twitter, especially) constantly going for the contrarian punchline in an attempt to set themselves apart, and what we're left with, ironically, is everyone acting the same (and usually in a hateful way).

 

I also think there's an ignorance that comes from certain countries with better queer acceptance - especially America - where queers assume that their experience is the only one, and don't realise that their "jokes" can very easily be used by right-wingers elsewhere (and often in their own countries) to vilify us. "It's not my problem", "that wasn't my intention", "who cares?", etc. 

[zeze]

You can't deny it. Trans folks are one of the most homophobic people I've ever come across in my life

[mystery]

4 minutes ago, elevate said:

I think it used to be that people within the community would make jokes about themselves for fun, use slurs amongst friends to reduce their intensity, and even drag other community members knowing it was all very contained / isolated. 

 

Now, with greater acceptance, we've invited a bunch of weirdos who know nothing about queers to speak on our behalf. Add this to social media (Twitter, especially) constantly going for the contrarian punchline in an attempt to set themselves apart, and what we're left with, ironically, is everyone acting the same (and usually in a hateful way).

 

I also think there's an ignorance that comes from certain countries with better queer acceptance - especially America - where queers assume that their experience is the only one, and don't realise that their "jokes" can very easily be used by right-wingers elsewhere (and often in their own countries) to vilify us. "It's not my problem", "that wasn't my intention", "who cares?", etc. 

I feel like this sums it up really well. For a while it seemed more contained but now it seems like it is spreading outside the community as well.

[LustSpell]

Honestly, yes. People are taking this ironic and contrarian joking style too far. They make me uncomfortable af

Edited June 27, 2023 by LustSpell

[Arrows]

I always disliked those kind of jokes from the beginning. Not funny at all.

[mystery]

Just now, zeze said:

You can't deny it. Trans folks are one of the most homophobic people I've ever come across in my life

Nowhere in the posts linked did trans folk attack other members of the community. Most of the hate came from other gay people.

[zeze]

Just now, mystery said:

Nowhere in the posts linked did trans folk attack other members of the community. Most of the hate came from other gay people.

Ok. My point still stands as this is what I personally experienced and I never got any hate or homophobic remarks from a gay person in real life, can't say the same about trans people

[Lagerfeld]

So, other gay people are being blamed for straight people's homophobia now?

[Khal]

I feel like that tweet is equating different things that aren't on the same level?

 

Like sorry you're never going to convince me that "omg feed the beast aoty", which is pretty much making fun of the fact that gays like pop music is on the same level as last screenshot that calls them "AIDS patients"

 

One is lame at worst, the other is actually vile.

[#Beautiful]

10 minutes ago, zeze said:

You can't deny it. Trans folks are one of the most homophobic people I've ever come across in my life

its white gay men. its always white gay men

[mystery]

3 minutes ago, Lagerfeld said:

So, other gay people are being blamed for straight people's homophobia now?

That is not what I meant, enabling something is not the same as being the direct cause of it. The homophobia from people outside the community is always there and always will be, but something like this might make them more comfortable to spread that kind of hate.

[Rep2000]

Why are we blaming ourselves? When it has been studied that the recent homophobic backlash was coming from well-funded Nationalist Christian hate groups/Nat C? They gained that massive windfall from those NFTs trends. It's not "random" at all, and very well organized worldwide in fact.

[Otter]

Not the real homophobia no

 

Making them more comfortable referring to us as "gays"? Yes

[fromily]

I've noticed this - it feels like people have been watching these disparaging interactions between gay people (mainly gay men lbr) online and have just adopted it the same way they adopted all the other 'gay' lingo in recent years.

 

Just the other day I saw someone jokingly complain that 'the f*cking gays ruin everything' when an artist deactivated their twitter account (the artist later clarified that they were feeling overwhelmed). But the rts were full of people unironically agreeing with the op and talking about how gay people ruined the fan culture by demanding vinyl releases and new music. I was shocked that all these supposedly progressive people, who were fans of a trans artist, had zero issues talking mad **** about gay people (implicitly gay men) and how much they hate them. And to op's point, the language they used was almost identical to the language used by actual gay men talking amongst themselves online.

 

Unfortunately I think that young people and the chronically online are just so used to appropriating gay (and black) language nowadays that they don't see the difference between saying 'yass queen' and 'kill all gays' :/

[Mordecai]

Since trans rights are very topical at the moment LGBT rights are also under fire for the simple fact that we're guilty by association - and homophobes are using outrage against trans people as a scapegoat/justification to claw back on LGBT rights as well.

 

On an unrelated note, has anyone else seen a random rise in the amount of anti-LGBT content on their socials? In the last week I have randomly begun seeing homophobic posts and reels on insta and it's starting to feel uncomfortably calculated...

[arceus]

No.   The far left liberals are too blame. 

[Proseductice]

I couldn’t tell you if they’re related, but I’ve noticed this, and it makes me sad. For example, there was a tweet last year with a tiktok of JoJo Siwa dating her then girlfriend at the time on a date with the caption “normalize homophobia”, with several interactions.

 

Beyond that in a less specific scenario, the same I have seen with other gay influencers, celebrities or artists. People saying that they “make them hate being gay.” typically because of their personality, or “flamboyant” behavior.

 

It has never been funny to me. There’s no “correct” way to be LGBTQ+. Not to say you have to like every artist in the community that exists, but if you don’t, leave their sexuality out of the equation. It’s no less valid than yours. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Proseductice

[réveuse]

I've seen some truly outrageous jokes about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and it's getting disturbing.

[tellem]

It’s not connected to RW homophobia, this is literally just incel behaviour. The attacks are always about having sex or being attractive and it’s so obvious that the accounts doing this are run by losers

[gm4567]

Not really tbh

 

Intra gay homophobia is quite limited to lgbt circles and rarely makes it out of the community.

 

But i think its a symptom of how humourless and boring people have become especially on twitter. You cant do ANYTHING without some faceless account saying the most vile **** about you.

[Gaia]

It’s an interesting concept for sure. Some of them definitely don’t even seem like jokes but straight homophobia masked as “it’s so offensive it has to be a joke”

 

That being said, I’m not really a big fan of guys who dress like that or act overly flamboyant. Just a personal preference. Do not dislike them as people or anything and but I find them kind of annoying personally and do not really associate or hang out with them. Not really sure if it’s a toxic mentality because I am basing it on assumptions from previous experiences (not liking their overbearing personality) but idk. 
 

I think people “joking” about it on social media are actually criticizing it and masking it still. Even if I’m not a fan I’d never make jokes like that or even speak to what anyone else wears or how they act (unless it’s nudity in a public setting). 
 

Then again I’ve never had Twitter so…