Out Boulder County announced this week that the nonprofit will no longer use Twitter as a communications tool due to increasing hostility towards LGBTQ+ people.
The organization, which facilitates connection, advocacy, education, research and programs to ensure LGBTQ+ people and communities thrive in Boulder County, said that Twitter’s decision to rescind the policy protecting trans members from deadnaming and misgendering led to the decision to no longer utilize the platform.
“Social media companies have a responsibility to protect their users from hate speech,” Out Boulder County said in a statement. “By quietly removing their longstanding policy protecting transgender people from misgendering and deadnaming on their platform, Twitter has demonstrated a lack of care for the safety and wellbeing of the transgender and non-binary people who use their service.”
According to the Associated Press, Twitter enacted a policy in 2018 against deadnaming, or using a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned, as well as using the wrong gender for someone as a form of harassment. Twitter does not appear to have commented on the change to any national media outlets as of Friday.
Out Boulder County emphasized that they consider intentional misgendering and deadnaming hate speech, not free speech. The statement added that the organization has been considering leaving Twitter for several months as it has become an increasingly unsafe place for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community members.
“Leaving a tool that we use to communicate with our community is not a decision we made lightly,” the statement said. “In the end, Twitter left us no choice.”
The nonprofit went on to highlight the increasing number of attacks on LGBTQ+ people in public discourse and politics, including more than 400 pieces of legislation currently being considered or enacted across the country targeting the population in areas of healthcare, education and public accommodations.
“There is an organized effort to erase transgender people,” the statement said. “By revoking their policy, Twitter has made their corporate values unequivocally clear, and they clearly do not align with Out Boulder County’s.”
The nonprofit continues to post updates on Facebook and Instagram, which maintain policies against deadnaming and misgendering users.
