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#MeQueer takes Twitter by storm as LGBT community cries #MeToo

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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It started with an angry tweet. But by Wednesday, the #MeQueer hashtag had morphed into a global online storm with thousands of LGBT people taking to Twitter to detail their experiences of verbal abuse, sexual attack and physical violence.

Comments ranged from criticism of media representation to descriptions of assault.

“Nearly crying because you saw yourself represented in a tv show for the first time,” wrote @LizKilljoy.

“Being beaten so hard that your nose bleeds like hell for just coming out as trans to your dad,” tweeted @homolordt.

Taking inspiration from the #MeToo movement’s spotlight on sexism and sexual violence, Hartmut Schrewe, a Brandenburg-based writer, first used the #MeQueer hashtag on August 13.

“My husband is my husband and not my buddy. #Homophobia#MeQueer,” he tweeted.

Schrewe told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email on Wednesday that he had been moved to act by a telephone conversation between his husband and a colleague in which Schrewe was described as his partner’s “buddy”.

“I had had enough,” he said. “I wrote about this on Twitter and then the hashtag went viral.”

Schrewe said he was overwhelmed by the response, with posts pouring in from around the world. Read more via Reuters