How the American anti-LGBTQ hate machine is posing a threat to Canadians | CBC News

A wave of hate, stirred up far away, was starting to crash down on the LGBTQ youth centre he runs in North Bay, Ont.

Libs of Tik Tok is just one part of an ecosystem composed of social media accounts, think-tanks, politicians and personalities that have taken anti-LGBTQ hate from the margins of American political life back into its mainstream.

In fact, one day later, Libs of Tik Tok had resumed trying to ridicule LGBTQ people and draw attention to drag events, including one in Colorado. .

Drag events are routinely singled out as part of an escalating and multi-pronged attack on transgender rights, even if performing drag is unrelated to gender.

So far this year in the U.S., there have been several confrontations with right-wing militia groups at drag events, bomb threats directed at hospitals providing gender care and hundreds of bills introduced in state houses seeking to roll back LGBTQ rights.

And the level of hate directed at the LGBTQ community in the U.S.

This spike in legislation coincides with an increase in violence against the LGBTQ community in the U.S.

Among the most common is the misguided belief that children are being "groomed" at public schools and libraries to adopt different genders, rehashing an old trope that had once been directed at the gay and lesbian community.

Imara Jones, founder of TransLash Media, a non-profit focused on trans issues, describes the production of anti-LGBTQ hate in the U.S.

In this pipeline, popular accounts like Libs of Tik Tok play an important role amplifying conspiracy theories and drawing attention to LGBTQ events, Jones said, which then become the subject of online hate or in-person confrontations.

Alongside that process, Jones said, well-funded conservative think-tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation and Family Policy Alliance, help sanitize the most extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and assist Republican lawmakers with legislation.

"What that means is that you have this campaign of marginalization, dehumanization and hate joining up with political power," said Jones, who is also the producer and host of a podcast called The Anti-Trans Hate Machine.

For the LGBTQ community in Canada, there is a danger when large political institutions in the U.S., such as the Republican Party, back policies that dehumanize gender and sexual minorities, said Wilczynski

Earlier this year, libraries across the country were targeted by harassment and threats for hosting drag storytime events

Compton said the instances of anti-LGBTQ hate, both in Canada and the U.S., should serve as a reminder that the community remains vulnerable despite its growing visibility