Anti-LGBTQ Social Media Policy will hurt Queer Youth

I will never forget when my mom called my quadruple and I for a family meeting because of what she found in one of our browser stories. I yellowed when she asked if we could guess the problem, as a detective who is zeroing in on her suspects. I was 13 years old, and I felt that there was something terribly wrong with me that had to remain secret at all costs. I felt so stupid to risk my existence to google “naked men”, who were so innocent despite how perverse and twisted I considered myself to like their hard abs and hung penises.

“This is it,” I thought, ready for my life to be over. I didn’t really know what was happening to people like me, but I knew they were not part of society.

I was brought back to this moment when I read about Meta’s new hatred policy. In addition to removing fact -checking moderation, the company that Owns Facebook, Instagram and threads will “allow allegations of mental illness or deviation when they are based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse on transgenderism and homosexuality.”

In other words, Meta’s new guidelines normalize calling queerness a mental disorder.

At that moment, at 13, I was saved from the rest of my family and thought I had one. “I know you’ve seen Playboy on your computer,” said my mom, turning to one of my brothers, who had apparently admired big breasts and donkeys.

Of course, the rest of us would never admit our horny for her, so we carved at the one who got stuck and pretended to be widespread by his behavior. My mother assured us about being curious about women Be normal and used it as an opportunity to talk about sex. The situation should have been my anxiety; After all, my brothers and I experienced the same needs. But it marked the beginning of me that conflicted my individuality as dangerous and thinks I am abnormal.

I often think about how different in the coming years may have been if I have not been as diligent in clearing my browser history as if Homeland Security kept track of me. Would I have been less of a bullying in high school and threw insults before people could notice my own insecurities? Would I have been less drunk if I trusted that my sober I would like? Would my mom have been ready to give me the unconditional love she made when I came out at 20?

Before I thought the strength was honest, the fear of being perceived as gay weighed so heavy at me that it crushed everything else from matting. I just cared about hiding my secret and being accepted. But misery grew until it became self -destructive. While my brothers went to the Ivy League schools, I pretended to be enrolled and lived in a spare room that I found online after releasing from school. At that time, I had failed to discover the early signs of my alcoholism and severe anxiety because I blamed everything on my homosexuality; After all, it was considered legally regarded as a Mental disorder in the United States until 1973 and was not completely decriminalized until 2003.

I could not escape the rippling effects of my sexual identity being a precursor of malfunction. And I would have spent my entire life escaping from myself if I had been expected to “fix” it. At nominal value, Meta’s new policy is harmful because they promote bullying queerness as ok. But for me, they also present psychological warfare on LGBTQ+ mental health, especially for young people who can suffer from mental illness and believe that their innate identity is the problem.

So even though it may feel that Meta is abandoning Allyship now that it is no longer profitable, it is also to reveal all the progress that my generation made to destroy mental health – and disorders. The past decade has seen countless individuals come up online with their diagnoses, but Meta returns to a time when discrimination and stereotype were the law in the country. The company’s changed guidelines promote that weapons mental health as an insult. We have seen the deadly consequences of treating queerness as a disturbance to be handled, from the suffering of the hands Conversion therapy to disproportionate amount of LGBTQ+ young people’s suicide.

As a quadruple, I am living proof that you can give a child all love and traditional parenting in the world, and they will still be queer if that is who they are. My brothers’ straightness should be seen as proof that it is not contagious, so Leave the towers in peace! When I finally came out to my family, it was because I had hit the rock bottom so hard that I felt I had nothing left to lose. Nowadays I would not act with being gay for anything in the world; Being part of LGBTQ+ society feels like a gift. It has also brought me closer to childhood friends, which I once held an arm’s length as if I had the stretch power for Mr. Fantastic from Fantastic Four.

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Was the question that my loved ones often asked. The truth? I was afraid they would see me as mentally bad. It was not that I doubted their unconditional love but my own ability to exist while I was seen as abnormal. I can’t help but think that young queer people will be further crushed by the online attacks on their identity and neglect their mental health for fear that it could be used against them.

Jamie Valentino Is a Colombian -born freelance journalist and romantic columnist published in Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Men’s Journal, Reader’s Digest UK, Vice and more. Jamie has worked as a travel correspondent and covers the World Cup 2022 from Argentina, the Siesta culture in Barcelona and the underground nightlife scene in Milan.