Professor’s op-ed accuses Libs of TikTok of 'generating anti-LGBTQ hate’

A recent op-ed claims that the Twitter account Libs of TikTok is “a hate account” for its portrayal of the LGBTQ community. 

Libs of TikTok curates content from left-leaning users to critically expose their ideas, including posts about pronouns, defunding the police, and children’s books on gender identity.

Associate Professor of Sociolology Roderick Graham of Old Dominion University wrote the Newsweek op-ed, “LibsofTikTok’s Interviews Prove She’s Not Unbiased. She’s Generating Anti-LGBTQ Hate.” 

Brooklyn real estate agent Chaya Raichik, Libs of TikTok’s owner, operated the account anonymously until The Washington Post revealed her name in April 2022, according to the New York Post. 

Raichik credits her videos, the New York Post reported, with the firing of “a dozen teachers,” canceling drag shows, and inspiring Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which “prohibit[s] classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” from kindergarten to the third grade. 

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“Though the videos are already in the public domain, Raichik makes curatorial decisions in what to amplify to construct a harmful narrative about queer people—namely, that a cabal of queer activists and educators are sexualizing young people and indoctrinating them into a queer ideology,” Graham wrote in his op-ed. 

“Raichick [sic] makes decisions about what to repost and—even more importantly—how to frame those reposted videos to construct that narrative.” 

Campus Reform asked Graham whether he thinks that Raichik has good intentions but is executing her goal incorrectly. 

“I believe she intends to raise awareness about what she sees as the inappropriate ways queer teachers and activists educate youth on sexual and gender diversity. Whether those intentions are good depends upon a person’s beliefs about sex and gender diversity and how it should be taught,” Graham said. 

“Social media is a wonderful platform to raise awareness of the issues one cares about. To the extent that her goal was to raise awareness, she executed that goal correctly.” 

When asked what her account has accomplished, Graham acknowledged some of Raichik’s claimed successes. 

“I believe Raichik herself has commented in her interviews that politicians have been inspired by her tweets to introduce legislation restricting how sex and gender diversity are taught in schools,” he told Campus Reform. “If this is true, then she has been incredibly successful.”

Libs of TikTok has made other conservative causes go viral by documenting the Left. 

In November 2022, Campus Reform covered a series of Libs of TikTok posts showing a Trinity College staff member taking down students’ “Don’t Tread On Me” and first responders’ flags. 

Though students received an email telling them that they cannot hang items outside their dorm rooms, Libs of TikTok revealed that “transgender flags [were] still allowed to hang proudly.” 

An op-ed defending Raichik in Deseret News said that Libs of TikTok serves another function: “open[ing] parents’ eyes to extremists’ content on the app–some of it from teachers.”

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The author, Bethany Mandel, continued to describe the kinds of stories exposed by Libs of TikTok, including a video explaining “a ‘sexy summer camp’ in order to teach young children ‘of all ages’ how to pleasure themselves.”

“[Raichik] explained that most parents of school-age children were unaware of the kinds of things their children could encounter on the platform, and she wanted to expose their ideology and let parents and influential individuals see the content for themselves.”

Campus Reform reached out to all relevant parties for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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