Over the past week, some people online have been openly referring to themselves as “super straight,” causing the term to trend across various social media platforms. According to Urban Dictionary, the term is meant to refer to a preference ” of the opposite sex with the exclusion of transgender people.” Members of the transphobic movement claim it’s a sexual orientation when it’s clearly a preference, and have caused intense discord online.
What many users encountering the idea for the first time may not know, however, is that the chaos caused by the idea is precisely the point. According to discussion threads on 4chan, trolls deliberately planned to provoke a reaction and divide the LGBTQ+ community by spreading the “super straight” idea.
‘Super straight’ originated on TikTok and spread to forums like 4chan
The original creator of the “super straight” appears to be TikToker kyleroyce, who on February 21 posted a video titled “who else is super straight?” The deleted video, which has been reuploaded to YouTube, shows the content creator sitting in his car, sharing his thoughts with the hashtags “sexuality” and “funny.” The video pulled in over a million views before the creator took it down, claiming in a comment that others had “sent death threats to my mom over it.”
In the video, the creator is explicit about creating the term because he was tired of being called transphobic.
“I’ve made a new sexuality, straight men get called transphobic because I wouldn’t date a trans woman,” kyleroyce said in his video. “Now, I’m super straight. I only date the opposite gender, women, that are born women. So you can’t say I’m transphobic now because that is just my sexuality.”
“I created it because I was sick of being labeled with very negative terms for having a preference, something I can’t control, and getting labeled by the community that preaches acceptance with that sort of stuff,” kyleroyce told Insider. “It was never meant to be hateful towards anyone.”
Over the next two weeks, the “super straight” video started to spread on social media, eventually hitting the /pol board of 4chan, known for being a home to far-right trolls, and growing from there. The board members discussed creating and sharing memes about being “super straight” to “drive a wedge” in the LGBTQ+ community and “use the left’s tactics against themselves, call them bigots for not accepting super straights,” according to several posts and deleted threads re-shared on Twitter. The posts also showed that the acronym used for “super straights” originated with the Nazi “SS.”
“Super straight” discussion also appeared on Kiwi Farms, an online board similar to 4chan with little moderation or oversight.
Over the weekend, ‘super straight’ conversation moved over to Twitter and Reddit
Over the weekend conversation around “super straight” became a large talking point on social media, seemingly following the designs of those from 4chan attempting to spread it. Users on Twitter started to identify as “super straight,” even going so far as claiming they are members of the “LGTBQ+ community.”
“I know a lot of people have the same opinion as me but they are too scared to say it in fear of the backlash and the misinterpretations,” kyleroyce said.
Critics of the movement pointed out that it is just thinly veiled transphobia.
AbbyInni on Twitter explained in a Twitter thread that this movement was created to “exclude trans people” and “you see trans women less as women and trans men less as men than cis people and that’s transphobic.”
“It is not transphobic, and it was never meant to be,” kyleroyce said.
The criticism has not stopped the “super straight” movement from growing.
On March 1, the subreddit SuperStraight was launched and has already pulled in 17,000 subscribers. On the sub, you can find posts from people claiming they are dealing with “superphobia.”
This isn’t the first time a hate and disinformation campaign grew popular from 4chan and spread elsewhere. In 2016, 4chan users tried to convince others that they could vote online leading up to the election and that rapper Drake had died.
*story by Insider