Montclair Social Media Study: Pride Month and LGBTQ Branding Backlash Driven Largely by QAnon and Popular Extremists

在对2022年以来Twitter（最近更名为X）上的68481条帖子进行的一项合作研究中，火狐体育（Montclair State University）的教职员工确定了最具影响力的账户，这些账户通过支持和包容LGBTQ社区，推动了迪士尼“培养”（即性操纵）儿童的叙事。 The findings are timely as Target and other corporations are scaling back or eliminating Pride Month activities this June, driven by backlash companies have received in recent years.  Data from PR Daily suggests some 30% of consumer goods companies will be making changes to their Pride observances this June based on concerns about this backlash.  As such, this research project offers context for the most influential voices driving social media advocacy against LGBTQ inclusion in the corporate space.

Highlights of the study recently published in the Journal of Crime, Media, and Culture include:

•  The impact of the posts engaged with the most (including comments) were  Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, Donald Trump Jr.,and The Post Millennial.
• The four accounts sharing “inclusion is grooming” content with the greatest reposts and “favorites” also included content from Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Walsh.

• A strong connection to the QAnon conspiracy (that an organized cabal of “elites” is harming children) was identified in the accounts producing the most significant visibility of the message.
• Accounts critical of LGBTQ inclusion that previously shared QAnon sentiment represented:

• 80% of the most followed accounts
• 80% of the accounts with the highest “impact” (total number of posts an account produced on a topic multiplied by the total number of followers)
• 71% of accounts producing the most liked content
• 57% of accounts producing the most shared content

• Total posts on this theme collected from March 13, 2022, to May 16, 2022, netted a total of 322,832,159 potential impressions, driven by the notable accounts identified.
• The full study, which is the seventeenth from the Montclair team at Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication, is found here.

The study’s authors express concern about the effects of such messages.

“’Grooming’ is a term that extremists and conspiracy theorists have co-opted from the anti trafficking movement, and it’s now being used against the LGBTQ community,” said Dr. Daniela Peterka-Benton, Academic Director of the Global Center on Human Trafficking at Montclair.

According to Dr. Joel Penney, an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair, this represents an ongoing “model of framing the sheer existence of LGBTQ people as inherently sexualized and thus inappropriate.”

“What seems to be an organic movement against the LGBTQ community appears to be guided by a small number of extremist voices with outsized social media reach,” said Dr. Bond Benton, Professor of Public Relations in the School of Communication and Media and researcher at the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication.

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About the Global Center on Human Trafficking: The Global Center on Human Trafficking is a multi-disciplinary effort focused on developing innovative solutions to the global problem of human trafficking. Montclair State University, one of the most diverse higher education institutions in the United States, has a history of supporting social justice and human rights issues affecting communities across the world. It is dedicated to mobilizing collective action to develop novel solutions to the complex problems of human trafficking so that all people may live free from human trafficking.

Contact: Keith Green, School of Communication and Media, 973-655-3701 or greenk@montclair.edu