NEW MEDIA
Google Elevates Anti-LGBTQ News Sites
How web’s top search engine gives credibility to homophobes and transphobes
BY MATT TRACY
Google has been prioritizing
some of the web’s
fringiest alt-right, antigay
news websites in
search results related to LGBTQ
news content, a Gay City News
analysis has found.
News sites such as Church Militant,
which has harassed out gay
Catholics , and televangelist Pat
Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting
Network, were routinely among
the top search results in a fi ve-day
experiment during which Gay City
News tracked the fi ndings when
searching with the “LGBT” keyword
on Google News.
The prevalence of such sites and
their anti-LGBTQ content among
Google’s top searches is wildly at
odds with how atypical such attitudes
are in American society today.
Some of these sites have either
Intentionally or not, Google is giving a big boost to the dark corners of the alt-right by ranking anti-
LGBTQ news sites prominently in search results.
been classifi ed as hate groups or
called out for their hate speech by
the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The results found that homophobic
FLICKR/ ROBERT SCOBLE
sites have been front and center
— and some are even on top. The
second search result for “LGBT”
on September 12 was an article
published by CBN News entitled
“Your Kids May Become LGBT Billboards
Next Week: Soccer Mom
Sounds Alarm on Activist Agenda.”
That piece ripped “homosexual activists”
and quoted “soccer moms”
who were critical of sports teams
displaying Pride gear such as
Rainbow shoelaces.
The next day, that same hatefi
lled site published an article
mocking transgender and gender
nonconforming people — and it
was listed as the fi rst search result
for the “LGBT” keyword. That piece
stated that a woman was discussing
gender-affi rming surgery “with
extremely uncomfortable children
looking on.”
On September 16, Google
propped up Christian Post, another
anti-LGBTQ news site. The
“LGBT” keyword on that day yield-
➤ GOOGLE, continued on p.15
CRIME
Gay Man Beaten With Steel Bar in Dublin
Innocent kiss leads to bloody homophobic attack in Irish capital
BY MATT TRACY
A gay Brazilian man who
has spent the last year
and a half living in
Ireland was brutally
beaten with a steel bar outside of
his Dublin apartment building on
September 21 — and it was all because
of a simple kiss, he told Gay
City News.
It was around 3:30 a.m. on a
Saturday morning when 28-yearold
Danilo Matta was returning
to his apartment, which is located
above a bar, after a night out with
his boyfriend and another friend.
Matta’s boyfriend was accompanying
him to make sure he got home
safely, and the pair shared a kiss
before his boyfriend hopped on his
bike and went home.
Matta was unaware, however,
that trouble was brewing in the
background as soon as his boyfriend
took off. He said a group of
fi ve or six troublemaking teenagers
saw the kiss and started walking
over to him. One of the boys in
that group screamed, “What’s going
on here?”
“I saw a bar in his hand, but
I didn’t have enough time to do
something,” Matta said via Facebook
messenger. “He hit me with
the bar in my face — then another
person was coming with a bike.”
Bloodied and dazed, Matta was
hit so hard with the steel bar that
he lost some memory of the attack.
He said he “felt dizzy” and had diffi
culty understanding what was
happening.
Matta said he was able to run
away and escape the scene, but
not before he suffered physical injuries
to his face. He denied medical
assistance when an ambulance
FACEBOOK/ DANILO MATTA
Danilo Matta, a 28-year-old Brazilian man living
in Dublin, shows the signs of his brutal beating
at the hands of a homphobic groups of teenage
boys.
arrived because he simply wanted
to get some rest, given that it was
nearly 4 a.m.
“Fortunately, I have very nice
people around me here,” he said. “I
went just to a dentist because I was
not feeling a tooth. But it’s fi ne.
Nothing too serious happened.”
Matta called police at the time
he was attacked, but they did not
answer until later that morning.
He went to the police station and
reported the crime, though he said
on September 27 that he had yet
to hear back from them about the
case.
He understandably remains
shaken up from the beating and is
scared to walk on the street. He is
especially worried when he sees a
group of teenagers, but he stressed
that he is okay.
“I’m getting better and it will
pass,” he said.
➤ DUBLIN BASHING continued on p.15
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