Drag queen Eric Jaffe believes she experienced queerphobia when EventBrite got in the way of her success. The platform — which she used as a ticket sales servicer for Gay Mis, a queer take on the classic Les Miserables that ran at FringeArts in February, abruptly stopped ticket sales for the production a day after Jaffe posted an ad on the site to boost reach.
Eventbrite stopped ticket sales on Gay Mis “because the event page was, for some unspecified reason, red-flagged by Eventbrite’s Trust & Safety Department,” Philadelphia Magazine reported. Jaffe’s account was also suspended — temporarily revoking access to revenue she’d already earned.
Jaffe regained access only after posting about the issue on Instagram — where fans also put pressure on the company. EventBrite responded to the backlash with a comment on that post, calling the problem a “technical issue” despite previous communications indicating that the event had been flagged.
“Let’s talk through it and just see how it looks,” Jaffe said in a second Instagram post. “A queer- and trans-centered musical promotes an event that has the word ‘gay’ in the title and a photo of a drag queen in the comments. The next day it is frozen, canceled, and the photo for the event on the EventBrite page is changed from this to this,” Jaffe said, pointing to an illustrated image of her in front of a Pride flag then to Eventbrite’s new image of a generic, empty stage.
“If that’s a technical error, your technicians are homophobic and that needs to be changed. Why was that seen as violating your terms?” she continued. “If your automated systems are designed to do that, then that’s clearly corporate suppression of queer and trans art.”
Jaffe said in her social media posts that her team lost weeks of income totalling $20,000 and counting. She is now consulting with a discrimination attorney and isn’t using Eventbrite for future shows.
Although it’s unclear how this all got started, Jaffe said in an interview that she believes a queerphobic user might have reported her ad or her account. And she isn’t the only Philadelphia artist dealing with this kind of quiet but tangible harassment.
What’s happening?
The first account used by performer Scarlet St. Cartier was permanently deleted after a post was reported for “adult sexual solicitation.” The video showed the ending of a performance in which she wore a long, sequin-encrusted gown with a train. In the clip, she lifted the dress slightly to show her ankles as she danced — but, she emphasized, it was not sexual.
A day later the account was deactivated, but Instagram doesn’t offer free live support with a representative — so she had no way to settle the matter. Eventually, she created a new account — but she lost 1200 followers, which took her two years to accrue, as well as countless photos she hadn’t saved externally.
Heavens 2 Betsy Stratton — a drag queen who believes her accounts were targeted because she is a drag performer and a person of color — lost access to personal and business accounts after a post she shared was flagged for violating community standards.
The post, a text-only image that made a crude joke about dick pics, was sent to her by a cis, white friend and only forwarded to close friends who Heavens 2 Betsy believes wouldn’t report her account. But the same post was not flagged or removed on other accounts — including her cis white friend’s — and continues to exist.
For years, Instagram has been called out for censoring trans people more than cis people and labeling trans-related content as sexually explicit even though similar content posted by cis people was not. Research compiled by GLAAD underscored that Meta allowed “extreme anti-trans hate” to exist on its platforms even before the company changed its moderation and hateful conduct policies in January — completely ending protections for LGBTQ+ people on its platforms.
Heavens 2 Betsy, whose day job is in information technology and information systems, believes her profile was being monitored by an algorithm and that key words triggered automated controls. Her personal accounts were initially suspended, but the account associated with her drag persona was quickly deleted — in a way that also seemed automatic — when she tried to appeal.
Heavens 2 Betsy learned that at least five people tried to reach her while her accounts were down — including a producer to book her for a gig as well as a costume designer and a wig designer she was working with. Other drag artists and trans people she knows have dealt with similar issues, and it’s likely to get worse.
“It’s more than just sharing videos and pictures,” she emphasized. “I’m actually conducting business, and not having access to my accounts was a huge impact.”
What can you do?
For many, online harassment, social media monitoring and flagged content leads not only to a loss of community and connection but also income. While the national political climate will likely remain unfriendly to queer people and the uptick in censorship and harassment shows no signs of abating, that doesn’t mean LGBTQ+ people are defenseless. Making plans to maintain access to content — and revenue streams — is just another aspect of protecting LGBTQ+ people.
LGBTQ+ people can choose to limit what they post publicly because it’s riskier right now — but self-censoring won’t always feel affirming. Brittany Lynn, who recently deleted a Facebook page after receiving death threats, recommended creating a private group so fans would only see content after they’re approved to join. Texting or using encrypted apps rather than messaging or reposting also keeps communications more private.
While saving to the cloud is one way to keep content that might otherwise be at-risk for being wiped if an account is deleted, Heavens 2 Betsy has been saving her own content to an external hard drive (such as a USB) and recommends using a physical back-up, which is only lost if the hardware itself is lost or broken and cannot be controlled by anyone but the owner.
Heaven 2 Betsy’s accounts are back online after purchasing Meta Verified — a service that costs her a little over $20 per month. Without it, she was in the same position as Scarlet St. Cartier who couldn’t reach anyone for help, but after purchasing she was on the phone with support in about an hour. She recommends the service but also said to consider switching to platforms that aren’t run by Meta — like BlueSky, where she and many other LGBTQ+ people are flocking.
For behind-the-scenes coordination, queer-run services — such as Cherry Social, an emerging space for LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people to establish new connections and make plans, or Kiki, a new queer-centered ticketing and activities app — might be a better fit than mainstream options.
Kiki’s founder and CEO, Wesley Wade, explained that while mainstream apps exist for LGBTQ+ people in a way that’s purely transactional, what he calls “queer-forward” tech offers the community a more nuanced and queer-competent experience. Kiki, for instance, includes safety measures (such as user trust ratings) that don’t exist on its counterparts.
“The term kiki came from this idea of creating unity and fellowship and building family — chosen family sometimes,” said Wade, who is gay. “Queer spaces are hollowed ground, right? But most of the technology solutions that exist are not built with this framework in mind, and mine is.”
Wade is acutely aware of the need for apps like Kiki to create a haven for queer performers, but he also wants Kiki to evolve into a space that’s used for more than just event planning — such as job hunts, chatting and friendship building, and other aspects of connection.
“A lot is going on in our society and in the broader world as it relates to not only the suppression of queer performers but also assaults on our identities,” he said, reiterating that this is happening in the US and in other countries. “There’s been a lot of legislative attempts to basically put us back in the closet.”
Wade noted that the support provided by LGBTQ+ centered tech can help performers not only achieve their goals, but even surpass them.
“And so at a critical time like we are right now with such an assault on our very lives, I think all queer [people and] organizations should be really examining where they’re investing their time, energy and money.”