Growing up queer in America often means navigating a minefield of shame, secrecy, and societal double standards—something Meta’s latest policy shift painfully underscores. The company’s decision to permit rhetoric framing LGBTQ+ identities as "mental abnormalities" isn’t just a bureaucratic tweak; it’s a direct echo of the same toxic narratives that made my 13-year-old self feel like a deviant for simply existing. Back then, the fear of exposure was paralyzing. Today, platforms like Instagram and Facebook risk institutionalizing that fear for millions.
The Backslide: How Meta’s Policy Rewrites History
it’s happening now.
The Hypocrisy of Selective Moderation
Meta’s inconsistency is staggering. The same platforms that ban misgendering trans people (a good policy!) will now permit calling them mentally ill. Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers and Holocaust deniers still get fact-checked. The message? Bigotry is acceptable if it’s wrapped in dogma. This isn’t about "free speech"; it’s about cherry-picking which marginalized groups deserve protection. Remember when Facebook temporarily banned the word "lesbian" as "sexual content"? Or when Instagram shadowbanned #Vaginaboob? Their track record on LGBTQ+ issues has always been a messy mix of performative allyship and outright harm.
The Real-World Fallout
Studies show LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, with rejection from family or community being a leading factor. Social media can be a lifeline—a place to find chosen family, resources, or just memes that make you feel less alone. But when platforms amplify dehumanizing rhetoric, they become collateral damage in a culture war. I think of my younger self, convinced he was broken, and wonder how much worse it’d be if his feed was flooded with posts calling him "deranged." For queer kids today, that’s not a hypothetical—it’s Tuesday.
Resistance Isn’t Futile: What You Can Do
Meta’s policy isn’t set in stone. Users have successfully pressured platforms to reverse course before (see: TikTok’s LGBTQ+ censorship backpedaling). Here’s how to push back:
My mother’s mix-up that day gave me a temporary reprieve, but the shame didn’t vanish overnight. It took years of unlearning to recognize that wanting to see naked men wasn’t a defect—it was human. Meta’s policy threatens to undo that progress for a generation of queer people who deserve better than to be treated as debate topics or diagnostic criteria. The internet shouldn’t be a time machine to the closet. It should be a door out of it.
