Deconstructing GOP Media Strategy Against the LGBTQ+ Community
If the internet is a battleground, the GOP has weaponized its playbook to devastating effect—and queer lives are collateral damage. Here’s how we fight back.
For years, the Republican Party has excelled at something most of us wish we could delete: mastering the art of disinformation. It’s not just the bombastic personalities of right-wing figureheads, inflammatory tweets, or cable news rants; it’s a deeply systemic media strategy designed to vilify LGBTQ+ people while couching bigotry in the language of “family values” and “freedom.”
At its core, this strategy takes the playbook perfected during the Trump years and amplifies it: demonise queer communities, sow fear through moral panic, and spread easily shareable lies that thrive on outrage. None of this is random. It’s deliberate, calculated, and, most importantly, dangerous. But how does it work—and what can we do to fight back?
Step 1: Manufacture the Villains
The GOP’s first move is finding scapegoats, and right now, LGBTQ+ communities are public enemy number one. In a culture of outrage politics, fuelled by the lingering shadow of the Trump era, Republican lawmakers and media figures have seized on queer people as the latest “threat” to their fabricated vision of America.
Consider their relentless fixation on trans athletes and drag performers. These groups make up an infinitesimally small percentage of the population but have been transformed into existential threats by right-wing media. Why? Because they’re easy targets. By creating enemies, the GOP offers its base a rallying cry: protect “traditional values” from the queer community. The point isn’t to address any real problem—it’s to manufacture one and then position themselves as the solution.
Step 2: Spread Fear Through Viral Narratives
Once the villains are identified, the second step is to spread moral panic. Social media provides the perfect ecosystem for this. Misleading tweets, doctored videos, and inflammatory soundbites are designed to go viral, sparking anger and fear that drown out nuance and truth.
Take, for example, the deliberate spread of misinformation linking LGBTQ+ educators and allies to “grooming.” This wasn’t an accident. It was a calculated effort to conflate queerness with danger, forcing queer people and their allies onto the defensive while making potential allies hesitant to speak out.
Social media platforms like Facebook amplify these narratives, not just because of their users but because their algorithms reward the most incendiary content. Outrage drives clicks, clicks drive profits, and the truth becomes collateral damage.
This isn’t just about bad tweets or obnoxious TV personalities. By turning LGBTQ+ people into villains, the GOP’s media strategy emboldens real-world harassment, violence, and discriminatory legislation.
Step 3: Dismiss Accountability, Shift the Blame
When activists, journalists, or fact-checkers try to push back, the GOP employs its favourite escape hatch: attack the messengers.
Fact-checkers are branded as “biased,” journalists as “liberal elites,” and activists as “radicals.” The goal is not to engage in genuine debate, but to discredit anyone who challenges their narrative. This strategy was honed to perfection during the Trump administration, where figures like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene would play the victim whenever their falsehoods were exposed.
By turning accountability into another opportunity to claim persecution, they successfully shift the narrative. Instead of addressing the harm caused by their disinformation, the conversation becomes about their supposed “censorship” and “free speech.”
Step 4: Saturate Media With Repetition
The final step is saturation: make sure the lies are repeated everywhere, over and over again. It’s not enough for one right-wing influencer to tweet about drag bans or trans athletes. It has to be a chorus—from Fox News to far-right blogs—until the narrative drowns out the facts.
This repetition forces even mainstream outlets to cover the controversy, unintentionally amplifying the GOP’s framing under the guise of journalistic neutrality. By the time fact-checking or nuanced analysis emerges, the damage is already done. The disinformation has spread, and it’s the headline—not the correction—that sticks in people’s minds.
Why This Matters to LGBTQ+ Communities
This isn’t just about bad tweets or obnoxious TV personalities. This is about creating an environment where hatred is normalised and thrives. By turning LGBTQ+ people into villains, the GOP’s media strategy emboldens real-world harassment, violence, and discriminatory legislation.
The consequences are especially dire for queer youth. Seeing their identities vilified on national platforms isn’t just hurtful—it’s isolating and dangerous. The rhetoric doesn’t stay online; it fuels policies that deny them healthcare, restrict their access to safe spaces, and erase them from public life.
The GOP knows this. That’s the point; the cruelty is the point.
How We Fight Back
The good news? This strategy isn’t unbeatable. Here’s how we push back:
- Amplify Truth, Not Outrage: Resist the urge to quote-tweet bad takes or share content designed to incite anger. Instead, amplify voices, stories, and resources that counter disinformation with truth, humanity, and hope. Support queer creators and independent journalists who are shifting the narrative.
- Demand Accountability From Platforms: Hold social media companies accountable for enabling hate and disinformation. Push platforms like X, Facebook, and YouTube to enforce their existing hate speech and misinformation policies—or call them out when they don’t.
- Support Independent Media: Right-wing media dominates in part because it’s well-funded. Fight back by supporting independent outlets (like TML!) that prioritise LGBTQ+ voices and refuse to platform bigotry.
- Educate Your Circles: Misinformation thrives when it goes unchallenged. Share resources about media literacy with friends and family. Encourage conversations rooted in facts and compassion, not reactionary arguments.
- Vote—and Mobilise Others to Vote: The GOP’s media strategy isn’t just about narratives; it’s about paving the way for legislative attacks. Show up in elections—local, state, and national—and reject candidates who weaponise these tactics. Mobilise your community to do the same.
What’s Next?
The GOP’s disinformation campaign may be loud, but it’s not invincible. By understanding their strategy, we can dismantle it—tweet by tweet, post by post, election by election. The fight for truth is a fight for queer survival.
Stay loud. Stay resilient. Stay relentless. We’re not going anywhere.