Update (8/27/21): Following this report, TikTok has banned the search terms “ex gay” and “exgay,” adding a disclaimer that the phrase is associated with "hateful behavior."
Although TikTok announced it was banning “content that promotes conversion therapy and the idea that no one is born LGBTQ+” and has been publicly celebrating Pride Month, the platform appears to still house content promoting conversion therapy tactics. In particular, TikTok is hosting videos featuring people who are a part of the “ex-gay” movement and claim to have been “set free” from being LGBTQ. These videos have consistently earned hundreds of thousands of views.
This inconsistency is yet another example of TikTok loudly updating its community guidelines to garner positive press without actually enforcing the new rules, and thus leaving vulnerable users without the protection they were promised.
Conversion therapy is a harmful and discredited practice that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people. GLAAD has described the work of conversion therapy proponents, including those in the “ex-gay” movement, as follows:
In October, in an effort to counter hate on its platform, TikTok explicitly banned content “that is hurtful to the LGBTQ+ community,” specifically including “content that promotes conversion therapy and the idea that no one is born LGBTQ.” The “ex-gay” movement relies on the harmful idea that LGBTQ identity is not innate and can thus be changed, and by TikTok’s own standards, related content should be prohibited from the platform.
Nevertheless, TikTok continues to house and circulate “ex-gay” conversion therapy content, including videos in which creators claim to have been “set free” from a “homosexual lifestyle” and encourage their followers to do the same. Several earned upwards of 250,000 views, and one earned nearly one million.
TikTok’s failure to protect its LGBTQ users comes as some state legislatures -- feuled by right-wing media -- are targeting queer youth for simply being themselves, including via measures that prevent trans youth from accessing best practice medical care. A 2020 FBI report found an increase in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people from 2018 to 2019, and The Trevor Project noted in its 2021 report that 42 percent of LGBTQ youth “seriously considered” suicide in the past year. TikTok’s unwillingness to protect its (often young) LGBTQ users has the potential to cause emotional and physical harm.
Here are some examples of “ex-gay” content still available on TikTok:
- One creator wrote in overlaid text, “After 33 years in the homosexual lifestyle. Jesus set me free.”
