Instagram Flagged a Picture of Gay Dads with Baby as “Graphic” Content
educational conference in Berlin in April.But soon after the picture was posted, Instagram censored it with a black message screen that forced users to click to view the image.“Sensitive Content,” the message screen read. “This photo may contain graphic or violent content… [or] images that some people might find upsetting.”Later, an error message appeared on the link to the picture, which could no longer be viewed at all.The image features a real-life couple, Sam and David, and their child Jude.
The two fathers are seen nuzzling Jude with one father kissing the baby’s head. There is no graphic, violent, or sexual content in the image.Instagram has previously allowed pictures of lesbian or heterosexual couples nuzzling babies to remain on the site without being censored.Following action from Meta, the image was restored and now appears on the Men Having Babies Instagram account.“We apologize as this post was labeled mistakenly and has since been corrected,” a Meta spokesperson told Metro Weekly in an email.A post shared by Men Having Babies (@menhavingbabies)Ron Poole-Dayan, the executive director of Men Having Babies, told LGBTQ Nation that while there was no evidence that the photo was deliberately censored, implicit societal bias often makes people suspicious of two men who seek to raise children.While Poole-Dayan did not expound upon the reasons for that bias, such views may be rooted in decades-old stereotypes, recently revived by anti-LGBTQ activists, that gay men are child abusers, “groomers” who are trying to recruit children to their cause, or, due to their alleged promiscuity and the lack of a mother figure, are incapable of providing a stable home for children. “People don’t see us as natural parents,” Poole-Dayan said. “Some cannot easily forget that [gay men are] also sexual beings,” noting that some people may view the idea of two men raising children as something “threatening” or “worthy of scrutiny.”Poole-Dayan also claimed that this instance isn’t.
