Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry
Young people are particularly vulnerable to gender- and sexuality-based disinformation and extremist manipulation. The network of adults who care for and support young people in their homes and schools and throughout their communities play pivotal roles in helping them build resilience against such manipulation.
Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry helps educate and equip adults across caregiving capacities with information and resources that will help them recognize vulnerabilities and intervene safely and effectively. As the third guide in a growing suite of resources developed by the SPLC and American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL), Not Just a Joke delivers the support caregivers need to ensure all young people are safe, healthy and embraced by their communities.
Not Just a Joke provides readers with an overview of male supremacy, the anti-LGBTQ+ movement and how those belief systems intersect with other hateful, supremacist ideologies. It also helps readers identify warning signs that a young person has become susceptible to these ideologies, best practices for responding, and ways to build resilience against manipulation. Not Just a Joke also provides guidance on how to support and care for those who have been harmed by people who have been influenced by or hold bigoted beliefs.
“These conversations are hard, but they’re so important,” Pasha Dashtgard, director of research at PERIL, said. “Encouraging a shift in how we think about masculinity, femininity, and gender roles begins with open, ongoing conversations about sex, (social) media and the messages we consume. Understanding the roots of gender-based bigotry means diving into the digital waters that young people are swimming in and learning how to discuss the messages they’re encountering there.”
The guide can be accessed for free below. Please share it widely to help ensure that caregivers in all capacities can develop the confidence and willingness to support young people and to help cultivate inclusive, resilient communities around them.
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Illustration by the SPLC.
