Anti-LGBTQ Hate Speech Spiking Online

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Yeah it's not anyone's imagination these days

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On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, researchers and LGBTQ advocates have tracked an increase in hate speech and threats of violence directed at LGBTQ people, groups and events, with much of it directed at transgender people.

The content comes after conservative lawmakers in several states introduced dozens of anti-LGBTQ measures and amid a wave of threats targeting LGBTQ groups, as well as hospitals, health care workers, libraries and private businesses that support them.

“I don’t think people understand the state of danger that we’re living in right now,” said Jay Brown, senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign and a transgender man. “A lot of that is happening online, and online threats are turning into threats of real violence offline.”

The transphobic content targeting events such as Patterson's is just a subset of the hateful content about Jews, Muslims, women, Black people, Asians and others that has internet safety advocates and an increasing number of lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere pushing for tougher regulations that would force tech companies to do more.