Exploring Twitter as a platform for representing attitudes and the impacts of hate crime toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities

Social media has expanded and transformed our society; it has allowed conventionally hard-to-hear minority voices gain traction and enter mainstream online debate. In the past decade there have been societal and legal advancements for individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), making research in this area increasingly popular. Social media data, and particularly Twitter data are becoming an important way for social scientists to understand and analyse social trends (Sloan, 2017). Content published online has the potential to impact suffering beyond the virtual space, especially for LGBT individuals (Burnap and Williams, 2016; Qureshi et al., 2018). Research, however, is yet to examine the unique online representations for distinct LGBT identities and explore the impact of hate speech on this community.