New wave of offensive texts targets Hispanic and LGBTQ+ people

A wave of offensive text messages and emails has gone out to Hispanic and LGBTQ+ people in recent days, according to the FBI, coming on the heels of a barrage of racist texts that were sent to Black people in the wake of the election.

The FBI said in a statement Friday that some recipients of the latest messages were told they had been selected for deportation. Others were instructed to report to a “re-education camp” for LGBTQ+ people, the agency said, an apparent reference to conversion therapy or other coercive practices aimed at altering a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The messages were the latest in a series of offensive content that stared popping up just hours after the presidential race was called for Donald Trump the morning after Election Day.

Black people in more than a dozen states reported receiving texts that addressed them by name, told them they had been selected to “pick cotton” and ordered them to report for slavery. Some of the messages also made a reference to Trump — some even claimed to be from his administration — but a spokesperson for his campaign said it had “absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”

Misogynistic social media posts also surged in the aftermath of the election, with phrases such as “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” proliferating online.

Diana Brier, 41, who identifies as lesbian, said she was shocked after receiving one of the texts targeting LGBTQ+ people Nov. 10. The message she got referred to an executive order and instructed her to check in to be transported to an undisclosed location for an “LGB re-education camp.” It also mentioned Trump and the date of his inauguration.

Brier said the specificity of the message had unsettled her. Although she knew it was not real, she said it made her worry about what could happen to LGBTQ+ people under the new Trump administration.

“The timing is not a coincidence,” Brier said, referring to when the message arrived and what it said. “There’s a lot of concern among my queer friends about what’s going to happen to us.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company