How Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric Fuels Violence

'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry

In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directed from the very top and the damage this legitimization of bigotry has done

“It is a racial war:” Analyzing the violent rhetoric of active club members on X - Institute for Strategic Dialogue

ISD research revealed that some members of US-based Active Clubs are using X accounts to call for violence against targeted communities.

Seen but not heard: The New York Times failed to quote trans people in over 60% of 2023 stories on anti-trans legislation

A new report from Media Matters and GLAAD finds that The New York Times excluded the perspectives of trans people from two-thirds of its stories about anti-trans legislation in the year following public criticism for its handling of the topic. Media Matters previously reported that the Times helped fuel a right-wing anti-trans panic in 2022 by platforming anti-trans extremists, painting rising transgender identification as a social contagion, and fearmongering about the costs of transgender acceptance. In February 2023, the paper received two separate open letters: one from a coalition of 150+ organizations and leaders, including GLAAD, and a separate letter signed by hundreds of Times contributors that criticized the outlet's contributions to a deadly anti-LGBTQ culture war. The newspaper attempted to conflate both efforts, dismissing all criticisms of its coverage as merely “protests organized by advocacy groups.” Between February 15, 2023, when those letters were separately delivered to the Times, and February 15, 2024, the Times published at least 65 articles that mentioned U.S. anti-trans legislation in either their headline or lead paragraphs. We counted how often the paper quoted openly trans or gender-nonconforming sources, cited anti-trans misinformation or talking points without context or adequate fact-checking, and accurately represented the records of anti-trans figures mentioned in its stories. Our findings: 66% of the articles did not quote even one trans or gender-nonconforming person. 18% of the articles quoted misinformation from anti-trans activists without adequate fact-checking or additional context. 6 articles obscured the anti-trans background of sources, erasing histories of extremist rhetoric or actions.

Elon Musk's Grokipedia Pushes Far-Right Talking Points

The new AI-powered Wikipedia competitor falsely claims that pornography worsened the AIDS epidemic and that social media may be fueling a rise in transgender people.

Far Right Groups Targeting Pride Month - Google My Maps

Tracking the far right anti-LGBTIQ activists, Christian Nationalists, White Supremacists, and violent extremist groups targeting LGBTIQ events during Pride Month. Incident Report: https://tinyurl.com/PrideIncident Map Information: https://tinyurl.com/MappingPride #DefendPride Resources: https://itsgoingdown.org/defendpride/ Project of Radical Reports: https://www.radicalreports.org Contact: radicalreportsnewsletter@gmail.com

A Better Conversation on Guns

For the U.S. to make lasting progress against firearm violence, it must change the way it talks about — and talks to — people who carry.

The Algorithmic Management of Polarization and Violence on Social Media

Access the PDF version of this essay by clicking the icon to the right.

ICE violence against women is largely untracked. One advocacy group is working to change that.

Immigration agents with prior records of sexual and gender-based violence have drawn attention in Trump’s second term amid questions about training and vetting.

Leader-driven or Leaderless: How Participation Structure Sustains Engagement and Shapes Narratives in Online Hate Communities

Extremist communities increasingly rely on social media to sustain and amplify divisive discourse. However, the relationship between their internal participation structures, audience engagement, and narrative expression remains underexplored. This study analyzes ten years of Facebook activity by hate groups related to the Israel–Palestine conflict, focusing on anti-Semitic and Islamophobic ideologies. Consistent with prior work, we find that higher participation centralization in online hate groups is associated with greater user engagement across hate ideologies, suggesting the role of key actors in sustaining group activity over time. Meanwhile, our narrative frame detection models—based on an eight-frame extremist taxonomy (e.g., dehumanization, violence justification)—reveal a clear contrast across hate ideologies: centralized Islamophobic groups employ more uniform messaging, while centralized anti-Semitic groups demonstrate greater framing diversity and topical breadth, potentially reflecting distinct historical trajectories and leader coordination patterns. Analysis of the inter-group network indicates that, although centralization and homophily are not clearly linked, ideological distinctions emerge: Islamophobic groups cluster tightly, whereas anti-Semitic groups remain more evenly connected. Overall, these findings clarify how participation structure may shape the dissemination pattern and resonance of extremist narratives online and provide a foundation for tailored strategies to disrupt or mitigate such discourse.

When is Political Violence Justified

What the Liberal Tradition Says on the Subject

The New York Times helped fuel an anti-trans panic in 2022. Will 2023 be any better?

Perhaps no mainstream publication did more in 2022 than the New York Times to shift the mainstream conversation around transgender equality away from obstacles to access in housing, employment, and health care and toward the idea that the most pressing issue facing the trans community is actually too much medical care. The paper’s venerable pages featured profile after profile that platformed anti-trans extremists, fearmongered about the price of transgender acceptance, and framed rising trans identification as a social contagion. A recent article that centers the concerns of parents calling for the forced outing of transgender students shows why in 2023, the Times must improve its coverage.

Why Are Some Democrats Backing MAGA's Anti-LGBTQ+ Censorship?

From late-night host cancellations to removing LGBTQ+ history from government sites, politicians in both parties are contributing to the overwriting of the internet — a place where lots of queer and trans people first find community.

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Radical Listening could transform our politics and block the rise of the far right.

I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day | Anonymous

Objectification, hate, rape threats: the politicians debating online abuse mean well, but to truly understand, they need to see what I see

Hasan Piker Threatens the Establishment. That’s Why They Want to Destroy Him.

Critics are leveling baseless charges of antisemitism and bigotry at the mega-streamer. But they’re really scared of the challenge he poses to their power.