Pride 2022: #WeBelong

People come to Twitter to connect with their communities, show up as their authentic and true selves, and talk about what’s happening. On Twitter, conversations about Pride Month grew by 76%* in the past year – from discussing Netflix’s romantic comedy Heartstopper to celebrating courageous moments, the LGBTQIA+ community and allies are showing up for one another on Twitter.

This year, we honour Pride Month with the hashtag #WeBelong. For all of the progress that the queer community has made in recent years, efforts to exclude, erase, and degrade them persist. #WeBelong is a call for queers to take up space and be loud in places where they've been told they don't belong or have been made to feel unsafe. 

#WeBelong on Twitter

It is important to us that people on Twitter can have safe, inclusive, and authentic conversations. Our purpose is to serve the public conversation. That means ensuring people are free to express themselves in a way that feels safe. We have rules to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation. Our hateful conduct policy specifically restricts the promotion of violence, attacks or threats on the basis of asexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.

Our new reporting tool makes it easier for people to report unhealthy and unwanted content via our redesigned process. During the research and design phase, we intentionally included people from marginalised communities — like people from the LGBTQIA+ community, including those who identify as trans or nonbinary – so that we can empathise and learn what their experiences were when filling out a report. We tested this feature in the US last year and saw the number of actionable reports increased by 50%. 

Here are some more ways people can be in control of their Twitter experience:

• Choose who can reply to Tweets in conversation settings to engage in more meaningful conversations and avoid unwelcome replies.
• Hide replies that are off-topic or detract from the conversation. 
• Mute words, phrases, usernames, emojis, and hashtags that may be abusive and cause uncomfortable experiences on Twitter.  
• Block specific accounts to restrict them from seeing Tweets, and contacting and following a person.

We recognise that there’s more we can do to make Twitter a place where everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community can eagerly say #WeBelong. We’re testing more ways for a safer experience on Twitter:

• Twitter Circle allows people to only show their Tweets to people they’ve picked.
• Safety Mode aims to automatically block accounts that appear to violate Twitter Rules or might be using insults, name-calling, strong language, or hateful remarks. It’s meant to proactively keep you safe from unwanted interactions.
• Prompts to reconsider Tweet replies containing harmful language. Our tests for this feature are seeing promising results, with people changing or deleting their replies over 30% of the time when prompted for English users in the U.S. and around 47% of the time for Portuguese users in Brazil.

This Pride Month, as we celebrate at parades across the region in-person or virtually, we must remember that our support for the LGBTQIA+ community needs to happen every month. Here are some people on Twitter who have been proudly leading the way in showing that queer people belong:

• Audrey Tang 唐鳳 (@audreyt)

Audrey is the world’s first openly non-binary and transgender executive Government cabinet member, Taiwan’s first digital minister, and a free software programmer who has been described as one of the ten greatest Taiwanese computing personalities. Tang is also actively involved in Taiwan’s g0v, a grassroots civic tech community dedicated to deepening citizens’ contributions and connections to society. Tang identifies as “post-gender” and accepts all pronouns, including she/her.

• Jennifer Lu 呂欣潔 (@jenlutaiwan)

Jennifer is a social worker, activist and writer. She has been devoted to the LGBTQIA+ movement in Taiwan for over 17 years. As one of the leaders who is leading the Marriage Equality Campaign in Taiwan, Jennifer believes in the power of communication and collaboration.

• Anucha Boonyawatana (@Nuchyfilm)

Anucha is a Thai independent film director and co-founder of G Village, one of the largest video production companies in Thailand. Well known internationally, her films focus on issues of gender and sexuality in Thai society as she wants people to understand LGBTQIA+ life and love. Her work includes “The Blue Hour”, “Malila: The Farewell Flower”, and “Not Me”.

• Engfa Waraha (@EWaraha)

Engfa is a Thai actress, singer, and beauty queen. Being born into a musical family, she first performed on the stage at just 6 years old and in 2018 became a contestant on the Voice Thailand. Using her platform as the reigning Miss Grand Thailand 2022, Engfa is a voice for sexual equality in Thai society and will represent Thailand at Miss Grand International 2022 in October.

• Rica Salomon (@RicaSalomon)

Rica is a digital creator, makeup artist, and founder of Kayu Beauty PH, and a proud trans woman. She uses her voice to fight for trans rights using wit and humour.

• Phi Palmos (@phipalmos)

Phi is a queer actor, best known in the local theater scene for his works on productions such as “Dekada 70”, “Ang Huling El Bimbo”, and “Rak of Aegis.” Phi is also a Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival 2019 Best Supporting Actor nominee for the film “Sila-Sila,” and 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival’s Best Picture “Walang Forever.”

Supporting our LGBTQIA+ Tweeps

Today, 13.5% of our employees (Tweeps) identify as LGBTQIA+. It’s important to us that our Tweeps reflect the diversity of those who use our service every day. At the forefront of building an inclusive culture at Twitter is @TwitterOpen, our Business Resource Group that unites and empowers our LGBTQIA+ Tweeps and allies.

We also provide training so Tweeps know how to be an ally. For example, our Trans 101 training – facilitated by experts at the Transgender Training Institute – helps Tweeps better understand  terminology, cultural contexts, and best practices for allyship to ensure our trans and non-binary colleagues and friends feel respected and valued.

Join in the Pride conversation on Twitter today with #WeBelong, #GlobalPride, #GlobalPride2022, #Pride2022, #Pride or #LoveIsLove today.

*Source: Brandwatch, Global Tweets, 1 Jan 2021–31 May 2021 vs 1 Jan 2022–31 May 2022.