Breach of privacy poses real risks to the LGBTQ+ community. As the internet became a space for people to present and embrace their gender identities with relative freedom, nonconsensual disclosure or ‘outing’ of LGBT people’s identification has become common on social media.
Revealing someone’s gender identity without their consent is an irreversible, damaging event. It removes a person’s control over their identity, leaving them vulnerable to harassment, ostracization by friends and family, and severe mental health effects. What makes this worse is how this can be done to them by the people who they trust–their friends and family.
In this case, simply customizing your privacy settings online is no longer enough. Online privacy now falls on the shoulder of the entire online community. Internet users must learn to respect one’s decision to come out in their own terms, and accept LGBTQ+ people’s newfound identities.#
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