Buzzfeed highlighted the recent slew of anti-transgender hoax stories -- published on on fake news websites -- going viral and spreading to right-wing outlets.
In a May 19 post, Buzzfeed founding editor Craig Silverman spotlighted the recent surge in anti-transgender hoaxes on fake news websites. These fake news stories -- at least one of which has spread to real conservative news websites -- spiked largely in response to North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law (HB 2) that broadly bans transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in publicly run facilities and schools. Many of the fake stories Buzzfeed profiled -- like the hoax about a transgender women getting caught taking pictures of underage girls at Target -- stem from the anti-LGBT “bathroom predator” myth that sexual predators will exploit nondiscrimination laws to sneak into women’s restrooms by pretending to be transgender. Anti-LGBT extremists have long peddled the myth in conservative and mainstream media to oppose basic nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people.
Buzzfeed interviewed the owner of several fake news sites and found that the hoax stories are a way to make “easy money” by capitalizing off of “the political polarization and anti-LGBT stance at the heart of HB 2.” Buzzfeed also spoke with Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, who voiced her concern that these hoaxes -- one of which ended with a vigilante shooting a transgender women -- will fuel anti-transgender violence. There have been several recent instances of anti-transgender harassment in bathrooms.
From the May 19 Buzzfeed post:
On Saturday, a report began spreading online that a transgender woman was shot and killed after she followed another woman into a Colorado department store bathroom.
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It’s one of several trans-themed hoaxes that have spread widely on Facebook in recent weeks. BuzzFeed News looked at the most shared articles from over 40 fake news websites and found other recent viral hits, including the fake story of a trans woman getting caught taking pictures of underage girls at a Target, a satirical article headlined “Transgender Dog Unsure Which Tree To Pee On,” and one that reported “Ann Coulter Arrested For Using Women’s Bathroom.” A false claim that Caitlyn Jenner is going to de-transition has also been circulating for weeks.
The spike in anti-trans hoaxes began after North Carolina passed a law, House Bill 2, that repealed LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances and that banned transgender people from restrooms in government-run buildings. It resulted in national coverage that caught the attention of the burgeoning fake news industry.
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“As you have likely noticed, the bathroom issue has really hit a nerve with evangelicals and Conservatives making it a ripe topic for ridicule,” said Allen Montgomery, the pseudonym used by a man who runs NationalReport.net and other fake news sites. “These topics that highlight their (perceived) persecution complex are good business for those in the hoax and/or satire industry.”
He said he’s only published three or four stories pegged on the bathroom issue, but that others are going after what he calls the “easy money” of HB 2 hoaxes.
The result is that fake news sites are churning out new trans-themed stories on an almost-daily basis to capitalize on the political polarization and anti-LGBT stance at the heart of HB 2.
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Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said she’s noticed a spike in anti-trans rumours and hoaxes since the law was passed.
“Trans people all over the U.S. are really really on edge right now, and every time one of [these hoaxes] comes out lots of trans people hear them and react to them,” she said.
Keisling is concerned that hoaxes about trans people harassing other people in bathrooms will “encourage vigilantes to come out of the woodwork and hunt trans people.”