“What Flipping Right Does a Teacher Have to Say Being [LGBTQ+] is Okay?”: Understanding Twitter Discourse Around U.S. Anti-LGBTQIA+ Legislation

Abstract

Amidst an explosion in anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and hate crimes in the United States, this study examines public discourses around legislation that suppress LGBTQIA+ rights. We conducted a computer-assisted content analysis of 25,711 posts on Twitter (now called X) collected during the time when bans on youths’ access to gender-affirming care were beginning to proliferate across the country. We identified five topics: education, legislation, medical, Disney dispute, anti-LGBTQIA+ attacks, and assessed the sentiments and toxicity levels of each topic. Findings reveal a fractured virtual public sphere in which discussions about LGBTQIA+ rights are contentious and toxic. We found that education was the most salient topic—whether children should be taught about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools—and tweets on this topic were also the most toxic. Overwhelmingly, the tone of the tweets was negative, although this varied by the topic of the tweets. We discuss the implications of our findings for a healthy online public sphere.