A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center has discovered a network of 60 organizations promoting anti-LGBTQ disinformation.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit serving as a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, by partnering with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.
The report entitled “Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives was released last week and revealed that a number of organizations fronting as hubs for medical and pseudoscientific information have taken part in a web of disinformation, specifically targeting trans people.
The goal of the report, according to Them, was to “document an extensive network of right-wing propaganda and pseudoscience, all of which is aimed at rolling back the clock for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. and abroad.”
Senior research analyst R.G. Cravens said in a press release accompanying the report: “We show how this network of anti-LGBTQ+ actors have built a political and PR machine that twists data and opinion from a very small minority of the medical community and positions it as mainstream.”
Examples of this phenomenon can be seen in state politics around the U.S. where many laws have tried to limit trans people in athletics or in education systems.
Some of the spotlighted anti-LGBTQ organizations in the report include Women’s Liberation Front, Transgender Trend, and 4thWaveNow, which pose transgender rights as a threat to “women and girls.” Research also found that the American College of Pediatricians (which acts in opposition to the American Academy of Pediatrics) and Transition Justice Project are also big contributors to disinformation.
The report also tackles a recent project from the Heritage Foundation which includes a 900-page plan for Republican governance following the 2024 U.S. elections. According to Them, the plan seeks to reshape the government by “enacting sweeping regressive legislation.”
SPLC continues to support and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups in the nation. So far their work has positively affected queer populations in combating conversion therapy, obtaining government benefits for LGBTQ+ veterans, protecting LGBTQ+ children, students, parents and medical treatments, safe housing, and the rights of the same-sex couples.
