Rumble anti-LGBTQ

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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The second GOP primary debate will be exclusively streamed on Rumble – a fringe platform rife with anti-LGBTQ extremism

A search for one anti-LGBTQ slur on the platform returned a video titled “Vaccinated f––––– who insulted anti-mandate protestors rightfully dies from the vaccine” on the very first page of results

Special Programs LGBTQ

Written by Natalie Mathes & Alyssa Tirrell

Published

Content warning: This article contains numerous examples of bigoted and violent rhetoric.

On September 27, several Republican presidential candidates will participate in the Republican National Committee’s second primary debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle. Rumble — a platform that hosts extreme bigotry and misinformation about the LGBTQ community — will host the official livestream, as it did the first debate. This livestream will place presidential candidates in the company of content that targets trans people with slurs, misgenders trans people, pushes baseless claims that LGBTQ people want to groom and prey upon children, and spreads misinformation about and mischaracterizations of gender-affirming care for trans minors. 

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  • Like the first, the second GOP primary debate will stream exclusively on Rumble, a platform rife with bigotry

    • On September 27, the RNC will hold its second presidential primary debate of the 2024 election — hosted by Fox Business and Univision and streamed exclusively on Rumble. The first debate, which was hosted by Fox News, was also streamed exclusively on the platform. [Media Matters, 4/12/23; Rumble, 8/9/23]
    • Rumble placed RNC ads on numerous pro-Hitler and neo-Nazi videos. Of one of these videos, Europa: The Last Battle, the Anti-Defamation League wrote: “[It] is an antisemitic, World War II revisionist film released in 2017 that claims Jews deliberately caused both World Wars--and that Hitler was only trying to save Germany from the Jews--as part of a plot to found the nation of Israel. The film is popular with white supremacists and antisemites, who often use it to recruit new individuals into their hateful ideology.” [Media Matters, 8/23/23; Anti-Defamation League, accessed 9/18/23] 
    • During the first debate, candidates expressed opposition to so-called “gender ideology,” insisted that “there are two genders,” and fearmongered about the need to “protect” women’s sports. Within the topic of LGBTQ rights, comments from the candidates “largely focused on school policies and athletics.” [Washington Blade, 8/24/23]
    • The RNC’s choice of platform may draw new audiences to Rumble and place presidential candidates in the company of extremism. Beyond its extreme anti-LGBTQ content, Rumble is home to numerous shows dedicated to pushing the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory, and is home to extreme misogynistic and right-wing figures who push racist and antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories. [Media Matters, 8/22/23]

  • Rumble hosts and even promotes content with anti-trans slurs

    • Simple searches on Rumble for various anti-LGBTQ slurs return seemingly endless results. Rumble suggested videos on the first pages of search results with titles such as, “Vaccinated f––––– who insulted anti-mandate protestors rightfully dies from the vaccine,” “Episode #95: T––––– Terrorism,” “Fat Ugly Asian T––––– Has “Won” a Local Miss America Pageant Here in New Hampshire 🤮🤮🤮,” “F––––– PEDOPHILE SATANIST OBAMA'S CHEF WHO HAD EVIDENCE ABOUT PIZZAGATE WAS MURDERED!,” and “Myron Roasts 🔥 Liberal F––––– Donator On FreshandFit Podcast With Nick Fuentes 🤣🤣😂.” [Rumble, accessed 9/14/23, accessed 9/14/23]
    • Rumble has even promoted numerous videos with anti-trans slurs in their titles on its “Battle Leaderboard Top 50.” Rumble’s leaderboard is a prominently displayed ranking of the 50 most-liked videos on the platform from the previous 24 hours. Media Matters has analyzed this leaderboard once per day since February 1, and found at least 12 videos with anti-LGBTQ slurs in the title featured on the list. [Media Matters, 9/14/23]
    • During a June 1 livestream on Rumble, “Rumble Exclusives” creator Steven Crowder praised the platform for allowing him to use an anti-trans slur. Crowder joked, “Let me check with Rumble if it’s ok if I use the word t–––––. Ring, ring. Rumble? We’re good.” Crowder then promoted Rumble again, arguing that conservatives should not rely on YouTube and Twitter due to their moderation policies: “There’s Rumble right there. Great, use Rumble. And let’s grow it. I want to see everyone on there.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 6/1/23; Media Matters, 4/11/23]
    • On June 15, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk celebrated being able to use an anti-trans slur on Rumble, saying, “Since we're on Rumble, we can say t––––– .” He also said, “We can say climate change is vastly overrated. The election, the 2020 election was stolen. … Vaccines probably, the mRNA vaccine probably hurts you. What else? ... Zelensky is a thug. T––––– .” [Rumble, THOUGHTCRIME, 6/15/23]
    • On September 12, Crowder referred to a segment on his show as “spot the t–––––.” Crowder also emphasized that he would not be allowed to play the segment on YouTube saying, “Thank you Rumble.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 9/12/23]

  • Rumble hosts content in which transgender people are misgendered

    • On April 3, Crowder repeatedly misgendered transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a segment focused on her partnership with Bud Light. Crowder introduced the segment saying, “Dylan Mulvaney did a special can marking [her] one year anniversary of womanhood. Let’s look at that phrase: [her] one year of womanhood.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 4/3/23]
    • On August 29, Kirk misgendered Artemis Langford, a transgender woman who recently won her case to remain a member of a sorority. In the segment, which also misgendered Langford in the title, Kirk said, “Instead of dealing with [her] mental problems in private, like mature adults do, [she] wants the rest of the world to suffer and be uncomfortable.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/29/23]
    • On September 6, Kirk streamed an interview with Salem Radio’s Sebastian Gorka in which they ridiculed multiple trans women. Kirk began by misgendering former swimmer Lia Thomas and Langford. The segment also contained more extensive anti-trans bigotry, including Gorka’s response to Langford’s case, in which he said, “The host called that thing brave and unique? Just look at the visage of that individual. That's an ugly pervert. That's a freak. That's a man.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 9/6/23]

  • Rumble hosts content pushing the baseless notion that LGBTQ people want to groom, abuse, abduct, or otherwise prey upon children

    • On a November 17, 2022, Rumble stream, Crowder suggested that parents will have their children taken away if they don't take them to drag shows. He argued, “That's the goal here. It’s to create enough distance and separation between what parents might want for children, so that then they could get their claws in young, and then they could petition and lobby CPS. And maybe five years down the line, it becomes standard practice that if you do not allow your children to attend drag shows or your child to get on puberty blockers, you lose your kids.” [Media Matters, 11/17/22]
    • On June 10, anti-public school crusader Leila Centner appeared on Redacted News’ Rumble Exclusives show and insisted that the fight against drag queen story hour is “a spiritual war” to protect the “souls of our children.” She stated: “This is a war. It's a spiritual war. And unless we work as hard as we can work to fight back and keep the souls of our children children, they're going to sexualize them, demonize them, and just continue to beat down their self-esteem and confidence.” [Rumble, Redacted News, 6/10/23; Media Matters, 4/11/23]
    • On a June 15 livestream on Rumble, Turning Point USA host Drew Hernandez fearmongered that the LGBTQ movement’s “end game is to sterilize humanity, depopulate, so that the homosexuals can just abduct children.” Afterward, he also baselessly claimed that “the economy is not going to be accessible to you if you do not worship homosexuality.” [Rumble, Drew Hernandez Live, 6/15/23, 6/15/23] 
    • On a June 16 Rumble livestream, Seamus Coughlin claimed that supporters of trans youth are trying to “pervert children.” He said, “The way the left has normally approached regular, everyday people is with slogans like ‘Protect Trans Kids.’ Now what does that really mean? It means: Protect the groomers who are trying to confuse and pervert children.” [Rumble, Shamer with Seamus Coughlin, 6/16/23]
    • In a June 22 Rumble video, Rumble Exclusives creator Nick Rekieta said, “Let's be honest that homosexuality is statistically and naturally aberrant. … Why are we pretending that it is not non-normative? It's non-normative. By statistics, it's non-normative. It's not even close.” He added, “They need it to be normalized for some reason because, again, these people have a deep-seated obsession with sex and sexuality, so much so that it would override the overwhelmingly compelling human prerogative to not speak to someone else's child about sex. Because, bro, that's fucking gross.” [Rumble, Rekieta Law, 6/22/23; Media Matters, 4/11/23]
    • On June 26, Rumble podcaster Shawn Farash baselessly claimed, “The left has been hijacked, the Pride movement has been hijacked, the LGB community has been hijacked by pedophiles.” He also warned LGBTQ people, “If you come for their kids, they're probably going to exercise their Second Amendment rights.” [Rumble, Ungoverned with Shawn Farash, 6/26/23]
    • On September 13, Crowder falsely claimed that pederasty is popular in the gay community, saying, “Pederasty in the gay community. Let's be honest about it. There's a reason the term twink exists.” He continued, “Members of the government are banning a book ban on lubricated sodomy for four year olds.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 9/13/23]

  • Rumble hosts misinformation about and mischaracterizations of youth gender-affirming care

    • On June 15, Hernandez called New York a “pedophile haven” because New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order to protect access to gender-affirming care. He ranted, “So come to New York and bring your children and place them on the altar for Lucifer so we can sacrifice your children to them and hack their bodies and drink their blood.” [Rumble, Drew Hernandez Live, 6/15/23] 
    • Also on June 15, Dave Rubin, host of Rumble Exclusives show The Rubin Report, baselessly fearmongered that in California, if a parent doesn’t “affirm” their child’s trans identity, “The state can now come and take your child away from you.” He continued, “Child services can come and now say, ‘Your child is not yours.’ In essence, ‘You are abusing your child.’ They will put that child in some sort of state facility or give them to some other group of people who will literally chemically castrate them, force them to undergo drugs and procedures and all of that stuff, that is happening in California right now.” [Rumble, The Rubin Report, 6/15/23; Media Matters, 4/11/23]
    • On July 17, in a podcast episode also posted to Rumble, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh celebrated recent Russian legislation that would ban transgender people from accessing gender-affirming care, saying, “This is all great stuff.” He continued with a mischaracterization of youth gender-affirming care, saying, “It is the most evil, the most egregious, to butcher or mutilate children who have no capacity whatsoever to consent to this or to understand what's happening to them.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 7/17/23]
    • On August 30, Pastor Jack Hibbs appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show and mischaracterized gender-affirming care by referring to it as mutilation. Hibbs said, “Californians, listen, our state will mutilate your child and you'll be the last one to know about it.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/30/23]
    • On August 28, in a podcast episode also posted to Rumble, Salem Media host Jenna Ellis held an interview with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in which they mischaracterized youth gender-affirming care as abuse. In the interview, Ellis referred to youth gender-affirming care as “child abuse” and Bailey agreed, comparing youth gender-affirming care to lobotomies. [Salem Media, The Jenna Ellis Show, 8/28/23]

    In accordance with the Trans Journalists Association style guide, Media Matters has replaced incorrect references to a person's gender in brackets in the transcript. For example, if a transcript incorrectly refers to someone as a “man” we change that language to say "[woman]."