Lgbtq changes

GLAAD RESPONDS TO META’S LATEST ANTI-LGBTQ CHANGES TO CONTENT POLICY AND DEI THAT WILL HARM USERS

GLAAD: “Meta and Mark Zuckerberg are now not only permitting and encouraging, but engaging in anti-LGBTQ hate speech … Meta is now an anti-LGBTQ company.”

January 10, 2024 — GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and lgbtq+ (LGBTQ) media advocacy entity is responding to Meta’s unprecedented set of draconian changes to its corporate policies, hate speech policies, and product features. In a single week, Meta modified major sections of its Hateful Conduct policy (to allow anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and remove protections for LGBTQ users);terminated its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs; deleted trans and nonbinary themes on Messenger; and ended its fact-checking program. These striking announcements follow years of imperfect, but visible LGBTQ inclusion from Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.

Response from GLAAD’s Social Media Shelter Program:
“With these changes, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg are now not only permitting and encouraging, but engaging in anti-LGBTQ hate speech — by intentionally employi

lgbtq changes

International Travel

Travelers can face distinct challenges abroad based on their real or perceived sexual orientation. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel. 

More than 60 countries consider consensual same-sex relations a crime. In some of these countries, people who occupy in consensual same-sex relations may face severe punishment. Many countries do not identify same-sex marriage.

Research your destination before you travel 

Review the commute advisory and destination communication page of the place you plan to call on. Check the Local Laws & Customs section.  This has information specific to travelers who may be targeted by discrimination or violence on the basis of sexual orientation.  

Many countries only recognize male and female sex markers in passports. They perform not have IT systems at ports of entry that can accept other sex markers, including valid U.S. passports with an X sex marker. If traveling with a valid U.S. passport with an X sex marker, verify the immigration regulations for your destination as acceptance can vary by country. 

Bring important documents 

Bring copies of important documents. This is es

Meta's New Policies: How They Endanger LGBTQ+ Communities and Our Tips for Staying Safe Online

by Belle Torek •

On January 7, 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a complete overhaul of content policies across Meta platforms. These changes add the end of fact-checking, thinned-down moderation efforts, and a dismantled Hateful Conduct policy that expressly permits abuse against Queer people while forbidding the same abuses against all other communities. In the following days, Meta has also announced the termination of its broader DEI tries, further signaling an abdication from its commitment to inclusion. Here, we illustrate what these changes mean for the LGBTQ+ community and offer paths forward, both on and off Meta platforms.

When Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to Meta’s content moderation policies, he framed the move as a bold defense of free speech. But many, especially members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies, worry about what this means for safety on Meta’s platforms and fear this marks an open invitation for Meta users to engage in anti-LGBTQ+ abuse that will disempower and marginalize the community.

To better understand the gravity

LGBTQ+ advocates alarmed by Meta's hateful conduct policy changes

Changes to Meta's hateful deeds policy could lead to increased hate speech and real world safety concerns, according to a Queensland social media expert.

Social media giant Meta will now allow allegations of "mental illness" or "abnormality" based on gender or sexual orientation on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

It also will now allow women to be referred to as "household objects", and for content arguing in favour of "gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs".

Meta has justified the changes by saying its rules had grow too restrictive and prone to over-enforcement.

Facebook to finish fact checking and 'work with Trump' against censorship

Mark Zuckerberg says fact checkers have been "too politically biased" and that society notes similar to those on X will be rolled out to platforms such as Facebook.

"We're getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender culture and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate," it said in a statement

LGBTQ Rights

The ACLU has a long history of defending the LGBTQ community. We brought our first LGBTQ rights case in 1936. Founded in 1986, the Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project brings more LGBTQ rights cases and advocacy initiatives than any other national organization does and has been counsel in seven of the nine LGBTQ rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. With our reach into the courts and legislatures of every express, there is no other organization that can match our record of making progress both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion.

The ACLU’s current priorities are to end discrimination, harassment and abuse toward transgender people, to close gaps in our federal and state civil rights laws, to prevent protections against discrimination from organism undermined by a license to discriminate, and to safeguard LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system.

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For non-LGBTQ issues, please contact your local ACLU affiliate.

The ACLU Lesbian Lgbtq+ Bisexual Transgender Proposal seeks to construct a just world for all LGBTQ people regardless of race or income. Thr