Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

My voice is being silenced by social media platforms, algorithms, bias, bigotry, and so forth.

Here is a Wikipedia page where my cousin Michael Pryor is quoted about shadow bans. In my case, it is Pink Banning. I haven’t seen Michael for over a decade and he’s a pretty progressive guy so I’m not going to blame him. I just like name dropping my super cool cousins.

This looks like ‘shadow-banning’ for me. Platforms suppress my content. This began years ago with Facebook shadow-banning my personal timeline. I could post picture of me naked and there would be almost no engagement. I’ve all but given up. Facebook is a place I go to find information, not to engage.

Last month, my Instagram followers began to drop – nearly 500 in a month. I post original content, share good stuff, interact with comments, interact with other content. I’m fairly certain my commitment to reshape everything out of Minneapolis and in other slippy cities is tied to this trend.

My blog’s page on Facebook is growing much more slowly than before. Same with BlueSky and Threads. Yes, I still post to Twitter/X, but that following is disappearing.

Mind you, I’m not glued to my ‘engagement’ data so it has to be significant for me to actually notice the ban. My ‘reach’ is about 300,000 right now. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but apparently – it doesn’t please the social media gods.

The worst thing is email. My personal address, my blog address, and the address for PLC go directly to spam folders without passing Go. I tell people all of the time to check their spam folders. How am I supposed to run a blog or a LGBTQ+ nonprofit without using LGBTQ+ language?

Euphemism much?

Don’t dismiss me. This is a real thing with real world implications for me and LGBTQ+ media. Back in 2008, it took me months to get Facebook permission to use the word lesbian in the name of my blog’s page. Months later, same issue with dyke. I thought those silencing battles were behind me.

But it is not just platforms. Subreddits and Facebook groups are notorious for rejecting ‘self-promotion’ aka links to my blog. I write a piece about a very important issue and half the groups on FB will reject it just because it is my blog. Reddit will never let me post. I can post the same content from another source, no problem. But there is rarely another source like mind. The era of using social media to amplify blog content is quite dead.

Remember when the City of Pittsburgh, Bob Evans Restaurants, and Panera blacklisted my blog?

This is all demoralizing. I don’t love being silenced. I do not love that misleading and anti-LGBTQ content gets traction without an opportunity to refute it. And I certainly do not love chasing algorithms.

It is not just queer content. It is mental health advocacy, environmental issues, frank discussions about childhood sexual trauma, amplifying indigenous voices, resisting ICE – using my words instead of fake words. It is fine to say slippy to reference ICE in Pittsburgh. Not elsewhere.

The number one thing you can do to support me and other creators is ‘engage.’ Like, heart, thumbs up, comment, emoticon, emoji, reshape, repost, forward, tag the creator. All of those things.

Trust me, I feel awful even suggesting it. You are busy, you have lives, you need to take action on the important content you read, not look for the right emoji. Why is commenting “I am leaving this content with all of the words so it is long enough to help boost the post” even a THING?

This has an impact on my mental health. I worry that losing my voice means I’ll stop saying things. I won’t write them. I won’t post them. I will be isolated.

I worry who else is being silenced. I have queer and trans friends posting about being shadow banned with plans to leave those platforms. That’s what the platforms and the extreme right wants, but we can’t put the burden of resistance on a handful of social media mavens.

It is quite exhausting. I’m just clawing my way through this, no plan.

Ultimately, I have no control over this. My Instagram followers are being siphoned away. And I’m sure it is – as always – because I’m a lesbian with a mouth.

I’m not fun, cute, endearing, optimistic, great with video and makeup tutorials. I use words to say things that need to be said. This needs to be said. It is my fucking blog so let it be written, let it be done.

The other thing that happens is I use social media platforms to escape. That’s not inherently bad, but it is a mark of my privilege. I like a good anecdote or thread as much as the next blogger, but I also need facts, analysis, and credible sourcing.

Here’s a post about following me on social media. No emojis. I’m not going to drop a list here because I’m more interested in your reflections on these twists than simply begging you to follow me. You are here reading this post. That’s good. We are good.