“Transvestigation“

This hate-driven conspiracy theory emerged in early 2017 and is still widespread on YouTube. It falsely asserts that certain celebrities — from Madonna to Mike Tyson to Melania Trump — are transgender and then “investigates” by offering fake pseudo-scientific “evidence.” This is a notable example of how transphobic hate actually impacts everyone — the targets of the harassment are cis celebrities. Content related to this form of anti-transgender hate runs rampant across all social media platforms, from crowd-sourced Facebook groups to tweets (like this one of Jennifer Aniston) to  YouTube compilations. The trope is especially widespread on YouTube. For example, the now private, 27-minute video entitled, “TRANSVESTIGATION of MADONNA — Undeniable PROOF!!! ‘SHE’ is a MAN!” constructs this conspiracy theory with a framing asserting that Madonna’s body-type is that of someone assigned male at birth. The video offers a faux-scientific analysis of the pop star’s anatomy which serves as a vehicle for a lengthy diatribe of dehumanizing anti-trans tropes and rhetoric. It should go without saying but we will say it: People should not be bullied and harassed with dehumanizing attacks on their bodies and identities.

“Transtrender“

This misguided and false trope claims that trans and/or non-binary people are not really trans, but are merely following modern “trends” of gender exploration for social or online capital. The trope is also intertwined with the hate-driven conspiracy theories of “gender ideology” and “social contagion” which falsely state that the trans experience is learned, a choice, and is consciously adopted from others, rather than an innate identity. Like the transphobic “transvestigation” trope, “transtrender” has not yet been debunked by major fact-checking sites. The Trans Language Primer offers a thorough, yet concise debunking: “A derogatory term used most often by transmedicalists and TERFs to imply that certain people only identify as transgender because it is trendy— often trans youth and non-binary people. This is false; the rise in people identifying as trans is due to greater visibility, representation, and education that allows more people to learn about the language that describes their experiences earlier and in places where that language hasn’t been common before.”

Wiktionary accurately describes the term as derogatory (note that there are deeper layers of discussion of the concept within the trans community itself), and a 2017 Quartz article on alt-right neologisms offers a history of its transphobic origins on Reddit. This trope is also another example of how hate and misinformation are often entwined together in a given meme or concept.

“Globohomo“

Emerging in 2016, this multi-purpose, right-wing troll invention combines homophobia and anti-Semitism. Researcher David Futrelle’s well-known misogyny tracking site We Hunted The Mammoth offers this summary: “Ostensibly, ‘globohomo’ is short for ‘global homogenization,’ an alleged vast conspiracy to destroy ‘traditional’ culture and values and replace them with a sort of global (naturally) corporate uniculture. But it’s rarely used in this way, at least not exactly. For those who’ve seized upon the term, ‘globo’ means ‘globalist’ and therefore Jews; while ‘homo’ (the suffix) means, well, ‘homo’ (the slur). (Some, evidently worried that ‘globohomo’ isn’t gay-sounding enough, add ‘gayplex’ to it — ‘globohomogayplex.’).” “Globohomo” also ties to the “LGBT agenda,” a similarly minded conspiracy theory promoted by certain sectors of the Christian religious right alleging that LGBTQ people aim to surpass the rights of other groups.

“LGBTP”

This fake acronym began circulating as a malignant meme in 2016 and 2017, and had a fresh resurgence in 2020. It promotes the lie that the LGBTQ community is adding a letter “P” for “pedosexual” to the LGBT acronym. Researchers in the field of online extremism have identified this as an example of an anti-LGBT “PsyOps” campaign intended to harm the LGBT community. A 2020 Reuters “Fact Check” reports: “The LGBTQ community does not condone ‘pedosexuals’ and no groups have shared that they do. These claims are false.” A 2020 USA Today fact check also notes: “The assertion that the LGBTQ community condones or supports pedophilia is not only false, but rooted in a history of bigotry.” As writer John Paul Brammer notes in Them, “LGBTP” has connections to “CloverGender,” another invented term originating from 4chan that falsely claims that some trans people “identify” as underage and therefore should be allowed to date minors. The goal is twofold, he writes: “to get cisgender heterosexual people to associate the LGBTQ+ community with sexual predators, and to get the LGBTQ+ community to mount a genuine defense against the accusation that it is harboring pedophiles within our circles, thus, on some level, validating the assertion. These repudiations, while virtuous in intent, still give the trolls what they want. They want to use the preexisting stigma against LGBTQ+ people to demonize us.”

“CloverGender”

Another deliberate attempt to conflate the LGBTQ community with pedophilia is the “CloverGender’ meme, which originated on 4chan in 2017, according to The Advocate. One aspect of these hate-driven “PsyOps” campaigns is the creation of fake social media accounts in which supposed “clovergenders” proclaim their identity as part of the LGBTQ community to thereby damage the community with the assertion, note the additional layer of psychological manipulation above in the made-up argument distinguishing this identity from pedophilia. Revived in 2020, these memes continue to circulate on social media despite being debunked by Snopes, USA Today, (“Fact check: ‘Clovergender’ isn’t part of the LGBTQ community”); and Reuters (“Fact check: ‘Clovergender’ is an alt-right hoax”). As Reuters summarizes: “Posts on social media claim that people identifying as ‘Clovergender’ are attempting to justify pedophilia. This damaging claim stems from an alt-right hoax intended to slur members of the LGBT community.”

“Super Straight”

Launched to prominence in February 2021 by TikTok user Kyle Royce, this particular transphobic trope and corresponding hashtag was quickly taken up by anti-trans social media users. Disingenuously premised on a logical fallacy, the “Super Straight” meme offers a combination of whataboutism and false equivalency. A 2021 Them article offers context and a partial transcription of the video: “Royce said he had ‘made a new sexuality’ because he was tired of being called transphobic for not wanting to date trans women. ‘Now, I’m super straight,’ he continued. ‘I only date the opposite gender, women, that are born women. So you can’t say I’m transphobic now because that is just my sexuality.’”

Here the speaker disingenuously asserts that this “identity” is a mere neutral (non-hateful) orientation, equivalent to LGBTQ identities and deserving of similar recognition and respect — and further, that the assertion is not an example of transphobia but simply an earnest expression of self. Like “Straight Pride” (and other hate-driven ideologies including “White Power”) these kinds of arguments are built on a feigned ignorance of real-world societal discrimination against marginalized groups and are a well-documented strategy of right-wing extremists for sowing discord and “trolling the Left“. Like the “LGBTP” campaign, “Super Straight” has continued to evolve as a vehicle for anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ conduct and content, including highjacking the #TransgenderDayofVisibility hashtag to troll and bury content by trans people and allies. In March 2021, Them reported that TikTok and Reddit have swiftly responded to the emergence of the trend. Reddit shut down the r/superstraight subreddit and TikTok deplatformed Royce and shadow-banned the hashtag. However, dozens of “Super Straight” accounts remain active across various platforms. This Insider piece offers further in-depth analysis.

“Troon”

“Troon” is a derogatory term, most often used as a slur for transgender women. A portmanteau of “trans” and “goon,” it implies that trans women are men, their assigned gender at birth. According to Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo, the term first appeared on the Something Awful internet forum where users referred to themselves as “goons.” This usage became far more targeted and derisive on Kiwi Farms, a notorious anti-trans online forum known for mass-organized stalking, doxxing, stealing, and harassment, including prompting the suicides of three trans people targeted by members. The forum singled out trans and neurodivergent people as part of its harassment campaigns, which in some cases led to dangerous cases of “swatting,” where members would make false calls to law enforcement, who would show up armed to victims’ homes. (In September 2022, Cloudflare blocked the site, which signaled to other internet infrastructure providers that Kiwi Farms was a liability.) The term has reached even broader use in early 2023 as social media accounts that target trans people (such as the formerly-suspended but now re-platformed @Troonytoons Twitter account) use the term “troon” in their profile names as a signifier that they are focused on producing and circulating anti-trans meme content. The account targets trans people on Twitter by leaking personal information or calling for dogpiling campaigns, and often acts as a laundering service to push material gathered as part of networked cyberstalking campaigns on Kiwi Farms into the broader public.

“Transgenderism”

The current usage of “transgenderism” as a term arises from anti-trans extremists and is crafted to delegitimize and dehumanize trans people by implying that being trans is an ideology rather than an identity. In her March 2023 essay, “On the Right’s Call to “Eradicate Transgenderism” (It Means Exactly What You Think It Means)” Parker Molloy explains: “A reminder that words like ‘transgenderism’ and ‘gender ideology’ are almost exclusively used by anti-trans activists to obscure the fact that trans people are simply people who just happen to be trans. It’s not a belief system.” While the anti-trans usage of the term has been in place for some years it was notably weaponized in a vicious March 2023 speech by right-wing extremist Michael Knowles at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which Knowles made the inflammatory pronouncement that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” Knowles posted versions of the speech on YouTube, as well as variations of the same rhetoric on his other social media accounts, while disingenuously asserting that his genocidal phrasing was not genocidal. 

From a social media strategy standpoint, the trope (along with other variations of the concept such as “gender ideology”) has served Knowles and other far-right media figures to disingenuously evade the hate speech and harassment policies of the platforms — which prohibit speech targeting people with hate on the basis of protected characteristics, such as gender identity, (while speech targeting ideologies is allowed). Anti-trans figures and groups continue to utilize the term online and offline as a dog whistle expressing contempt and hatred of transgender people.

“LGBTS” or “LGBTQIAS”

This anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory falsely proclaims that the LGBTQ community has recognized “S,” standing for “Satanist” as part of the umbrella term. While the harmful trope of linking homosexuality to “evil” has existed for centuries, this online claim emerged in a September 2022 episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” on YouTube. Wheeler also made the claim during a longer segment of her show, in which she denounced the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would provide U.S. federal legal protection for same-sex and interracial marriages. An Associated Press fact check confirmed in September 2022 that the claim was false. YouTube subsequently demonetized Wheeler’s channel.

Besides being used as a provocative hate-driven trope to generate online engagement for profit, “LGBTS” aims to incite a moral, religious panic and to foster fear of LGBTQ people. Associating groups of people with demonic or other subhuman figures is a known method of dehumanization, which is prohibited by the hate speech policies of the major social media platforms. Like “LGBTP” (the “P” supposedly standing for pedophile”), the practice of falsely asserting the addition of letters to the LGBTQ acronym is a well-worn anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation strategy.

“Groomer”

The anti-LGBTQ “groomer” trope (and similar baseless and dangerous rhetoric falsely asserting that LGBTQ people are pedophiles, sexual predators, and threats to children) is dangerous hate speech which has been popularized to foment fear and hatred, and ultimately violence, against LGBTQ people — specifically targeting them in direct violation of the hate speech policies of all social media platforms.

In recent years the term “groomer” has been widely used by far-right figures as an anti-LGBTQ slur. In March 2020, a 4chan thread had urged trolls to reply to tweets from LGBTQ people with “OK groomer,” as a play on the “OK boomer” meme, Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo writes. A variety of prominent alt-right and anti-LGBTQ accounts, including Jack Posobiec, James Lindsay, Libs of TikTok, and Ben Shapiro, subsequently began popularizing the “groomer” trope. In July 2022 multiple platforms including Meta, TikTok and Reddit issued public statements proclaiming that use of the term as an anti-LGBTQ slur was in violation of their hate speech policies; in 2022-2023, multiple companies including TikTok, Google, PayPal, Venmo, Wix, Printful and others have suspended social media accounts perpetuating the trope for being in violation of their hate speech policies. As a 2023 Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) Global report summarizes: “Around the world today, the use of the term ‘groomer’ is used to justify hate, discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community. In the US particularly, the use of this language, along with conspiratorial thinking around queer people, has led to legislation preventing the discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in schools and preventing trans children from accessing gender affirming healthcare, and has motivated attacks on LGBTQ+ individuals.”

Right-wing extremists have long propagated the term, but in recent years, it has become a mainstream conservative talking point and has been weaponized by politicians such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis. ISD further explains: “Part of the success of this mainstreaming lies in the ability of fringe actors to manipulate the general public’s lack of knowledge of queer culture and particularly their insensitivity to the plight of trans people. This has been coupled with the most potent fear — that of people harming children, which has been used to justify hatred and irrationality for centuries.”

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of anti-LGBTQ online hate and disinformation. Every term and concept should be evaluated in context. For instance, LGBTQ people and allies may use hashtags with hate terms as counterspeech, or slurs such as “tranny” or “dyke” may be used self-referentially to reclaim them. This guide will be updated on an ongoing basis. Please see the latest GLAAD Social Media Safety Index report for a deeper exploration of the current social media landscape for LGBTQ people, including GLAAD’s recommendations and thought leadership in the field.