Content warning: This insight contains references to homophobic and transphobic slurs and violence against women.
Introduction
At present, our understandings of misogynist inceldom centre around cisheterosexual men and women, failing to account for how queer and non-binary identities are targeted and delegitimised through users’ male supremacist rhetoric. The most extensive work engaging with constructions of queerness in the misogynist incelosphere are from Kelly and Aunspach (2020) and Vallerga (2024), whose analyses centre on compulsory (hetero)sexuality and the disparaging of lesbians within the main misogynist forum, respectively. This Insight explores the queer roots of contemporary misogynist inceldom, juxtaposing this with the community’s staunch stance against queer identities. Drawing on results from my doctoral work tracing identity-based harm across three forums for self-identified incels, this Insight explores how LGBTQ+ identities are constructed as degenerate, deviant, and duplicitous, connecting these narratives to wider trends in anti-LGBTQ+ extremism.
Inceldom and its Queer Roots
Despite its preoccupation with heterosexual gender relations, the contemporary misogynist inceldom has its roots in queerness. Originally coined by a queer Canadian woman named Alana, the term and its subsequent identity stems from an early peer-support website and email listserv aimed at people struggling with involuntary celibacy she created in 1997. While its userbase skewed male and straight, Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project afforded LGBTQ+ users space to discuss the interplay between their queerness and inceldom. The website explicitly recognised these intersections, with hyperlinks on the site’s landing page directing users to articles titled “Gay? Lonely? Or Both?” and “The Secret Closet”, both written by Alana herself. While the most visible and vocal incel communities continued to amass userbases of predominantly cisheterosexual men, some queer people still participated within larger community forums, but were likely to face down-voting or bans for discussing their own experiences. Other LGBTQ+ users carved out their own spaces to discuss the unique intersections of queer identities and inceldom. Though many of these spaces are now defunct, subreddits like r/Gaycels and r/TransgenderIncels, alongside active incelosphere-adjacent spaces like r/LGBTForeverAlone, centred the nuances of dating while queer, providing empathetic discussions that users felt were often missing in cishet incel spaces.
A screenshot of the original incel website when it was active, posted by Alana to her recent project Love, Not Anger in 2019. She states that this was the site’s homepage as of May 1999.
In aligning itself with a subset of the Internet where misogyny and male supremacist rhetoric run rampant, the contemporary incel community constructs inceldom as an identity only experienced by cisgender, heterosexual men, rendering others’ experiences of involuntary celibacy invalid. This exclusionary rhetoric is particularly prevalent within the main misogynist forum, where positive discussions of queerness and LGBTQ+ people have been explicitly banned. In an update to the site’s rules in 2022, a moderator described queer people as “disgusting and degenerate” and referred to LGBTQ+ content as “degrading filth”. However, queer identities are fair game for users to mock and delegitimise, with moderators noting that they “still allow our users to make fun of the condition as it arises”.
“Degenerate” Queers and Femmephobia
In line with moderators’ views, misogynist incels constructed LGBTQ+ content and identities as deviant, degenerate, and predatory through targeted uses of identity-based slurs and long-standing stereotypes about sexual promiscuity, mental illness, and stigmas of sickness. Their discussions malign queer identities as unnatural and unwell, while constructing cisheterosexuality more generally (as well as male cishet inceldom specifically) as ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ by comparison:
“f*****s and t******s [are] insane and narcissistic entitled pieces of shits who are more sexually obsessed degenerates than us incels who they hate so much” (User 125).
“f*****s, bis, d***s, and t******s are all disgusting. They have a lot of social issues and carry a lot of diseases. … They are simply not like straight people and are mentally fucked in the head” (User 66).
While queerness was viewed with contempt across community discussions, much of users’ ire centred on cis queer women and trans women. Though queer men were still viewed as degenerate at times, those who conformed to hegemonic displays of masculinity were seen as more ‘acceptable’ in their queerness. The disparaging of women and femininity by some gay and bisexual men both within and beyond the queer community fostered a begrudging tolerance of their queerness, particularly when it conformed to hegemonic ideals of devaluing and disparaging anything feminine. These displays of femmephobia are not unique to the incelosphere alone, though they are a central part of users’ discourse (Menzie, 2022). However, femmephobic rhetoric underpins broader instances of identity-based harm and subjugation toward femme-presenting cis and queer women, as well as straight and queer men deemed ‘effeminate’ (Hoskin, 2019).
Tolerance also hinged on viewing gayness through a lens of compulsory heterosexuality, constructing gay men as “incels in denial who are so desperate they went for other dudes” (User 110). Notably, this narrative was pedalled by former incel Jack Peterson on a 2021 episode of the Dr. Phil show, where he claimed that his hatred of women “forced” him to “go gay” and start a romantic relationship with another man. Others viewed gay men as less competition for sexual and romantic gratification, where tolerance hinged on the fact that “they don’t take foids [from] me like Chad does” (User 112). However, this conditional tolerance was revoked for effeminate queer men, who were seen as doubly degenerate for aligning themselves with an inferior gender and failing to conform to masculine displays of heterosexuality. Queer men who were perceived as ‘feminine’ were subject to femmephobic harm through conflations with degeneracy and predatory behaviour: “I hate the ones that act like Queens or do Drag, bunch of Degenerates. I bet they are all Pedos” (User 95).
“Chadsexuality” as Sapphic Erasure
Femmephobic narratives were also used to question and invalidate the existence of queer women. This often took the form of lesbian and bisexual erasure, with users couching both sexualities in quotation marks to delegitimise them, along with conclusive statements that there were “no such thing as ‘lesbian foids’” (User 121) in threads about queer women or LGBTQ+ identities more generally. Sapphic sexualities were portrayed as a ruse that allowed women to discriminate against ugly men or acted as a temporary placeholder until they succeeded in finding Chad: “foids come out [as] lesbians in order to become invisible for most men. That way it’s easier to sit back and wait for the right man (Chad)” (User 123). Anecdotal evidence of queer women’s past experiences with compulsory heterosexuality before coming out was used to ‘prove’ that women were inherently Chadsexual, further strengthening narratives of all women as duplicitous and deceitful, along with targeted narratives singling out queer women specifically. These findings mirror decades of queer scholarship critiquing narratives of compulsory heterosexuality that devalue sapphic women by presenting them as “innately sexually oriented only towards men”, or that a woman’s queerness is “an acting-out of her bitterness toward men” (Rich, 2003:13).
Narratives portraying queer women as inauthentic, devious, and Chadsexual directly intersected with threats of sexual or physical violence, particularly in response to user retellings of rejection by queer women or in discussions of queer women’s past experiences with men. Users called for queer women to be “torched at the stake (in GTA)” (User 113), “stoned to death publicly” (User 187), and “GANG RAPED” (User 141). This violence was framed as a logical corrective, constructing women’s queerness – and their rejection of misogynist incel men – as punishable by threats of lynching, assault, and rape.
Transmisogynist Hatred
Amidst a documented rise in transphobic rhetoric and violence both online and off, misogynist incel discussions contained a similar preoccupation with trans identities, much of which centred on devaluing transfemininity. Discussions of trans identities and gender-nonconformity often hinged on displays of transmisogyny (Serano, 2021), the interlocking transphobic and misogynist oppression experienced by transfeminine people due to deviating from gender norms that correspond to their sex at birth and failing to embody cis femininity. Misogynist incels’ speech mirrors mainstream ‘gender-critical’ narratives that construct trans women as predatory ‘men in dresses’ who inauthentically perform womanhood, threaten cis women and children, and are thus deserving of disgust, revulsion, and violence (Billard, 2016; 2019). Users adopted similar narratives across posts, referring to trans women as “abominations” (User 190) and “delusional/disgusting freaks” (User 191, 193) while also holding them responsible for “shov[ing] their degenerate bs on kids and others” (User 192).
Discussions about trans identities centred on passing, the process of aesthetically aligning with cisgender depictions of acceptable masculinity and femininity. Failing to pass, or to be perceived as ‘visibly trans’, legitimised expressions of transmisogynist hostility through comments like “how do they expect to be seen as women when they are like 6’4 with broad shoulders and a deep voice” (User 99), and “most of them don’t pass and just end up looking like men in dresses which is infinitely worse than being an incel” (User 101). Moreover, targeted uses of transphobic slurs worked to increase the harm of transmisogynist rhetoric. One term, a portmanteau of words ‘trans’ and ‘goon’, has been used to disparage trans people across 4Chan and KiwiFarms, with gender-critical accounts popularising the term on mainstream platforms like X and Reddit. Its use implies that trans people, specifically trans women, are using their gender identities to hide “sinister and politically violent ends”. Users blended transphobic stereotypes with these slurs to further alienate and subjugate trans women:
“a lot of tr***s are still ugly and masculine looking” (User 20).
“most t******s don’t look like women though. Most of them are blue haired, fat neckbeards” (User 139).
Discussions of transmaxxing (or referred to derogatorily as t*****maxxing) were also present, with users constructing trans women as incels who transitioned to gain access to romantic or sexual success, or to live life with less difficulty (often referred to as living on “tutorial mode” ) as a woman (Users 188, 189). These discussions construct transitioning as a deceptive and inauthentic act, working to delegitimise the lived experiences of gender dysphoria and the joy of transitioning to live authentic lives. This framing is particularly problematic, as it furthers gender-critical narratives presenting trans women as inauthentic and predatory, while linking them directly to a community whose most vocal, misogynist members repeatedly target, dehumanise, and threaten women.
Contemporary Anti-Queerness and Extremism
The queerphobic rhetoric within contemporary misogynist incel forums mirrors wider forms of anti-LGBTQ+ views that are inextricably linked to extremism, both online and off. For instance, Chaya Raichik, who operates the far-right and anti-LGBTQ+ Libs Of TikTok accounts on X, Facebook, and Substack, has built a following off of platforming hate speech and disinformation related to trans healthcare, drag performers, inclusive education settings, and queer-owned small businesses. Raichik’s disparaging and doxxing of queer people has spurred coordinated harassment campaigns targeting queer teachers, bomb threats at hospitals providing gender-affirming care to trans youths and schools featured in Libs of TikTok posts, as well as inciting the targeting of drag story hour events and drag shows. Extremist far-right and white nationalist groups, including the Proud Boys and the Patriot Front, have specifically targeted LGBTQ+ events in communities across the United States, spewing narratives likening queer people to “groomers” and “paedophiles with AIDS”. Similarly, far-right, neo-Nazi, and conspiratorial groups have capitalised on the anti-trans rhetoric spreading online, framing transphobia as a valid means of protecting women and children from “groomers” and “predators”, using this rhetoric to fuel calls for disruptive and violent action aimed at “protecting the nation”.
These sentiments are far from new: narratives linking queer people to degeneracy, paedophilia, and predatory behaviour have historical links to extremist groups and ideologies, regressive legislative decisions (Stone, 2016), and wider public opinion (Billard, 2018; Woods, 2023). However, the increasing prevalence of these views across fringe and mainstream platforms sounds alarm bells for extremism researchers, queer people, and allies alike. The anti-queer rhetoric within misogynist incel forums share striking similarities with content shared on mainstream platforms by both members of the general public and accounts with ties to extremist groups, demonstrating an ability to cross-pollinate across different ideological spheres and reach wider audiences. Despite breaching clear guidelines around hate speech, bullying, and threats of violence, this content remains visible across platforms, working to influence anti-queer lobbying, legislation, and offline attacks.
Recommendations
Recognising the shared narratives across male supremacist and extremist groups and working to counter, deconstruct, and challenge their prevalence in the online sphere is necessary to ensure greater protections for queer people, both online and off. Content moderation efforts across mainstream social networks must respond to the increasing prevalence of anti-queer language and disinformation that remains visible (and, at times, is monetized) on their platforms. One aspect of effective response is to ensure that moderation processes are informed the work of LGBTQ+ focused scholars and activists, who catalogue shifts in derogatory and dehumanising narratives. One such example is GLAAD’s Guide to Anti-LGBTQ+ Online Hate and Disinformation, which provides in-depth examples of how terms, tropes, and concepts are used across platforms to incite hatred and further disinformation.
Allysa Czerwinsky (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in Criminology at the University of Manchester. Her research interests centre on the intersections of technology, harm, and violence, with a specific focus on misogynist extremism, online harms, and ethical research into unsavoury populations.