A landmark new study has found that discussions surrounding race are the single biggest driver of transphobia online in the U.S.
Anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label worked with Brandwatch to analyze more than 10 million public posts between January 2016 and May 2019, in an effort to research transphobia.
The resulting study, “Exposed: The Scale of Transphobia Online,” found 1.5 million instances of digital transphobia, with race identified as the most common theme of transphobic posts in the U.S. and politics the most common theme in the U.K.
“This report should act as an eye opener,” Ditch The Label said in a tweet. “Equality and respect for all humans regardless of how they choose to identify or look needs to be the standard. The issue is not trans people, it’s the way society views trans people.”
Warning: This article contains language that some may find offensive.
Ditch the Label noted that former First Lady Michelle Obama was “at the epicenter of much of the amplification of transphobic language during the time period we analyzed, with conspiracy theorists suggesting she is trans, and frequently calling her ‘Mike’ or ‘Michael.'”
The charity also noted that Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military fueled further transphobia, as did the Boy Scouts of America‘s decision to allow pre-teen and teen girls to join.
Ditch the Label found that the single most-used transphobic term online was “tranny” or “trannies,” accounting for over one million of the transphobic posts found during the study.
“Shemale” was the second-most used term, with over 156,000 mentions, and “gender bender” the third most-used term with over 56,000.
YouTube had one of the highest ratios of transphobic posts
The study compared constructive discussions of transgender issues versus transphobic comments and abuse across a number of different websites, and found that Instagram had the lowest ratio of abuse, comprising just 5% of posts.
YouTube overwhelmingly had the largest percentage of transphobic posts, relative to discussions of the issue, with 78% of trans-related posts found to contain transphobic abuse.
Ditch The Label also found that, compared with the U.K., “mentions across most of the site categories were more hostile in the U.S.”
“This report does not make for light reading as it uncovers the shocking and inhumane ways in which transgender people are targeted, harassed, and abused on digital platforms,” Ditch The Label CEO Liam Hackett said in a statement. “The online posts we uncovered, some of which have been shared thousands of times, range in severity from transphobic attitudes through to genocide and violence.”
The organization created a Pyramid of Transphobia to highlight how, left unchallenged, “digital hate speech can and does evolve into acts of physical violence committed towards trans people,” Hackett said.
The pyramid, modeled on the Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate, shows how behaviors on the lower tier — transphobic attitudes, acts of trans bias — can support and lead to higher-level behaviors, such as transphobic violence and trans genocide.
Hacket said that Ditch The Label hoped its report would “bring the problem to the forefront of public conversation, and encourage an urgent review of hate speech guidelines on social platforms and in law.”
‘You have to be dead inside to not let it bother you’
Trans model and activist Munroe Bergdorf said that the findings of the study “don’t surprise me.”
“As someone who is in the public eye, I experience abuse on a daily basis and I worry that there are people in my community who don’t have the support systems to allow them to access the strength to deal with abusive behaviors,” Bergdorf wrote in Ditch The Label’s report. “I’ve seen most of the transphobic comments in this report on my timeline, ranging from memes and abuse to actual threats to my safety.”
Bergdorf noted the correlation between transphobic comments and race — the most common theme in the U.S. and the second-most common in the U.K.
“As a trans woman of color, being subjected to these comments is extremely difficult to navigate,” she said. “You have to be dead inside to not let it bother you and it’s made even harder when you experience it all the time and the people perpetrating it don’t seem to be sanctioned for their behavior.
“I was interested to see the relationship between transphobia and racism and do feel that racist people see transphobia as a tool to legitimize their racism. I’ve had transphobic comments on photos of me mixed in with nazi speech a number of times.
“Transphobia is seen as a valid opinion,” she added. “We never look at racism, sexism or homophobia and say it’s an opinion, so why is transphobia such a ‘free for all?'”
A video shows a Burger King manager -- who also owns the franchise -- ordering an irate female customer to leave after she tried to get an employee disciplined for allegedly misgendering her, despite the fact that she had repeatedly misgendered the worker first.
It’s unclear when the video was recorded, but it has been circulating widely in recent days.
The video, filmed from the customer’s point of view, opens with her at a Kansas Burger King demanding to speak with the manager. A male employee goes to get the manager, prompting the customer to demand the manager’s full name. The employee tells her he doesn’t know the manager’s last name.
The Trump administration is working to bring a transgender woman back to the United States after immigration officials wrongly deported her in violation of a federal judge's order.
Britania Uriostegui Rios, a Mexican transgender woman who came to the U.S. in 2003 and later became a lawful permanent resident, lost that status in 2023 after pleading guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon, according to The Guardian.
She received a suspended sentence for the assault conviction, then was sent to a men's immigration detention facility as officials prepared to deport her to Mexico.
San Francisco has named Per Sia, one of the first performers to read at a Drag Queen Story Hour event, as the city's new Drag Laureate.
Appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie on October 29, the 44-year-old Per Sia is only the second person -- and the first transgender individual -- to hold the title.
D'Arcy Drollinger, owner of the Oasis nightclub, was San Francisco's first Drag Laureate. The position -- one of only two in the country, alongside West Hollywood's -- comes with a $35,000 annual stipend for a three-year term funded by the San Francisco Public Library, which also supports the city's Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.