Artificial Intelligence And Tech's Ever-Growing Presence In The Lgbtq+ Community

On Thursday, Commonwealth Club World Affairs hosted its third-annual Human Rights Summit at its San Francisco office, featuring many panels including "Addressing AI and Tech for the LGBTQIA+ Movement" that explored digital equity and the impacts of artificial intelligence on the LGBTQ+ community.

The discussion addressed the challenges of social media discrimination and algorithmic bias against LGBTQ+ content creators and exposure of their work.

Drag queen activist and actress Sister Roma shared her 2014 encounter with Facebook's "real-name system policy" that required verification of her legal name after being logged out. Publicly recognized in the LGBTQ+ community as Sister Roma, no one identified her by her legal name.

"Well, Facebook knows my legal name. They probably know what I had for breakfast this morning," said Sister Roma. "So I put in my legal name, but then my profile with this face showed up with my legal name next to it, and I haven't used my legal name ever online anywhere."

It was then when she met Susan Gonzales, who was Facebook's director of community engagement and policy at the time. Gonzales helped carry out a broader investigation that revealed the policy not only affecting drag artists, but poets, psychiatrists, adult content creators, school teachers, domestic violence survivors, and others.

"And I think the biggest lesson I learned from that is -- obviously that was a very different time, right -- when diversity, equity and inclusion really was or intended to be a priority," said Gonzales. "But it was also an exercise in how important is to have an internal champion."

Their collaborative efforts for greater transparency in Facebook's leadership revealed that Facebook was misusing the reporting process to target and silence queer individuals, which sparked the "My Name is Roma" campaign that became a critical moment in advocating for digital representation and rights for the LGBTQ+ community.

Amp Somers, sex educator and podcast host of Watts The Safeword, emphasized how queer people experience greater difficulty being visible on all platforms and getting them to properly function.

"Queer people -- especially drag queens, sex workers, sex educators -- are usually the canaries that start chirping when something's not quite right on a platform, AI, algorithms, Facebook, YouTube," said Somers. "We're working five times harder to be treated like a normal person on these platforms."

Somers, along with many other creators, experienced a significant suppression of channel views, exclusion of his channel and videos in search results and a dramatic drop in viewership without explanation. He and seven others in 2019 filed a federal lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Google alleging discrimination based on sexual or gender orientation. A judge eventually ruled against the group and dismissed the final claim in the lawsuit in 2023.

"I still feel like we made a positive difference," said Celso Dulay, co-founder of gay marketing agency The Gaygency that empowers LGBTQ+ voices. Dulay was also involved in the lawsuit. "We stood up there. We were documented. It's part of the legal fabric out there. Another person or lawyer could pick that case up and reference it ... we started the discussion, we were out there, and we made a point of it."

On algorithms, the sentiment among the queer community and content creators of color was the feeling of being undervalued and less profitable on platforms that often lack algorithm transparency.

Gonzales reminded those in the room the ability of choice in deciding what to share on social media, while acknowledging that everyone who interacts on the internet does not have the choice to disengage with AI as it continues to learn about its users' behaviors.

Dulay questioned AI's pervasiveness as it's embedded in LGBTQ+ virtual spaces like dating apps, social media and health care. Additionally, he noted the lack of finding queer representation in stock images generated by AI, being flagged as inappropriate or non-existent, and the challenges of trying to find creative solutions.

"There's a responsibility I feel to feed it the right information so that it supports our community," said Dulay. "I feel like I'm being in the closet again. I'm having to alter my authenticity."

The panelists captured a mix of frustration and doubt, but also called for collective action.

Under President Donald Trump, efforts have been made to erase queer history, while both misinformation and disinformation generated by tech and AI services continue to pose challenges.

While the public can advocate for legislative action as elected officials learn more about AI advancements, Somers emphasized the importance of promoting policy responsiveness and maintaining open dialogue with local leaders. Meanwhile, Dulay encouraged more mindful engagement regarding how AI is trained.

"If they're worried about the bottom line, we're enough of a community with influence over profit," said Dulay.

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