Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media Weekly Newsletter | Meta's Anti-LGBTQ Guidelines
🚨BREAKING: State of Washington Passes Bill To Take Minor Children Away From Parents If They Refuse to Agree to Gender Transition Surgery.
🚨ALERT: CANADA JUST MADE IT ILLEGAL TO PROTEST AGAINST THE LGBT!
🚨NEWSFLASH: CALIFORNIA GOV. JERRY BROWN TO FORCE SCHOOLS TO SHOW KIDS ‘GAY SEX’ AS PART OF INCLUSIVE LGBT CURRICULUM.
No, none of the above are accurate or factual (it’s fake news!). But yes, all of the above are real headlines posted to Facebook in the last few years that were presented as real news.
They’re produced by content factories or thirsty influencers trying to make money by getting as many clicks as possible by having you get riled up enough to at least say, “f*ck it, I wanna read more.”
Click.
And as of Tuesday, Meta—which owns Instagram, Facebook and Threads and has upwards of 3.3 billion users—has canned their fact checkers, which were put in place in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election.
But what’s most alarming about Meta’s new rules is that while the social media giant will still prohibit insults about someone’s intellect or mental illness, there is now a caveat for accusing LGBTQ people of being mentally ill because they are gay or transgender.
“We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird,’” the revised company guidelines state.
The decision—which comes at a time when 41% of queer kids seriously considered suicide in the last year—is seen as Zuckerberg’s latest bow to Trump. “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech … so we’re going to get back to our roots … and restore free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg announced in a video he released on Tuesday.
The tech CEO, whose company donated $1 million to president-elect Trump’s inaugural committee and dined at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida in late November, says his fact-checkers had become “too politically biased.” He went on to say Meta will use a “community notes” feature, similar to what Elon Musk has done with “X,” to help users understand the legitimacy of posts.
Trump said Zuckerberg’s new approach was “probably” due to threats he made against the tech mogul.
Meta's New Hate Speech Guidelines Permit Users to Say LGBTQ People are Mentally Ill (NBC)
Changes to its hate speech guidelines were among broader policy shifts Meta made to its moderation practices.
Pentagon Agrees to Historic Legal Settlement with Gay and Lesbian Veterans (CBS)
The Pentagon has reached a historic legal settlement with more than 35,000 gay and lesbian military veterans who were dismissed because of their sexual orientation, and in many cases denied an honorable discharge and the array of services they had earned.
The Vivienne, Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Dies at 32 (The New York Times)
James Lee Williams was best known by that stage name and also built a career in musical theater.
Pope Names LGBTQ Supportive Cardinal as Head of Archdiocese of Washington (Washington Blade)
McElroy was praised as a ‘brilliant theologian and astute political analyst.’
Instagram Blocked Teens From Searching LGBTQ-Related Content for Months (Teen Vogue)
Posts with LGBTQ hashtags were hidden under Meta's “sensitive content” policy which restricts "sexually suggestive content."
We are officially partnering with The Stranger, a Seattle-based news publication! Check out our story that they republished this week here.
This weekend, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting:
🆕 I interviewed fellow Substacker Judd Legum of Popular Information about Meta’s new rules and how they could affect the LGBTQ community.
🆕 We’ve explored the challenges surrounding PrEP access before, but this week’s story delves deeper into a high-stakes legal battle. A controversial lawsuit argues that requiring insurance coverage for PrEP violates employers' religious rights. What could this mean for HIV prevention efforts nationwide?
Thanks for reading! And feel free to email me with questions, complaints, tips and story ideas!
Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief
spencer@unclosetedmedia.com
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We can hope that ACLU will take on Meta for this obviously discriminatory action. I am surprised at the ease with which the very wealthy have bent the knee to you know who.