Rainbow Ghosting: public support for diversity fades, hate speech rises 38%, and AI reflects these biases back to LGBTIQ+ profiles

• The global conversation on X about the LGBTIQ+ community has fallen by half, while media coverage has declined nearly 10% QoQ over the past three years.
• The global ecosystem of brands and organizations is reducing its annual public exposure: Pride Month now accounts for a growing share of a conversation that is shrinking year after year.
• AI projects 140% more autonomy onto cishet profiles and links the LGBTIQ+ profiles to narratives of protection, fear, and rejection, with 72% more associations related to managing fear and 42% more related to exclusion.
• For this report, LLYC has analyzed 15.1 million news articles, 202 million messages on X, and 627 AI-generated images.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In 2023, the public ecosystem supporting diversity was far more visible: twice as many news stories on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were published as in 2025, and up to six times more than today. Media coverage has fallen by 2.5% quarter over quarter since 2021, a contraction that has accelerated to nearly 10% quarter over quarter over the past three years. 2023 also marked the high point of corporate commitment: today, the companies and brands that maintain active inclusion policies represent one-third fewer than they did then. Messages on X have been cut in half. Yet digital hate speech against the LGBTIQ+ community has surged by 38%. These are among the findings of “Pride Left on Read”, a report presented by LLYC in connection with the international commemoration of June 28.

LLYC calls this progressive withdrawal of public support for diversity “Rainbow Ghosting”: a cultural metaphor drawn from digital relationships to explain how a presence that began as love bombing toward the LGBTIQ+ community, full of messages, promises, and gestures of commitment, gradually lost continuity until it became seasonal and, in some cases, faded away. The concept points to the silence of the ecosystem of brands, media, institutions, platforms, and public figures that once helped recognize, amplify, and publicly sustain the community’s sense of belonging.

This broader retreat not only leaves the LGBTIQ+ community less protected beyond the screen; it is also being assimilated by generative AI algorithms themselves, which already associate autonomy and professional success 140% more with cishet profiles than with people from the LGBTIQ+ community. By contrast, responses linked to these profiles are overrepresented in territories of protection and vulnerability.

To quantify this phenomenon, LLYC applied Big Data, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing (NLP) tools. In total, it analyzed 15.1 million news articles, 202 million messages on X, and more than 4.6 million pieces of violent content across the 12 countries where the firm operates. It also examined how generative systems interpret identity through 90 questions covering different areas of life, comparing five control profiles (four LGBTIQ+ profiles and one cishet reference profile), as well as through the analysis of 627 AI-generated images.

“What this report reveals is the progressive, drip-by-drip withdrawal of public support for LGBTIQ+ diversity by brands, institutions, and media. The LGBTIQ+ community, of course, has not stopped speaking or mobilizing. But the ecosystem that once helped publicly sustain its belonging is responding with less frequency and continuity, allowing more hostile narratives to occupy that space, a discourse that, unfortunately, AI is already beginning to absorb. We need to respond to this dynamic and not leave that support simply ‘on read,’” says Albert Medrán, Global Brand & ESG Head at LLYC and coordinator of the study.

The calendar paradox: only June lights up the conversation

The conversation around diversity is losing frequency in the media. Print and digital coverage has fallen by 2.5% quarter over quarter since 2021, a reduction that has accelerated sharply to nearly 10% quarter over quarter over the past three years. It is also becoming more concentrated in time: the second quarter of the year went from accounting for 28.5% of annual publications in 2023 to more than 32% in subsequent years. This does not mean Pride Month is gaining real visibility, but rather that it accounts for a growing share of an annual conversation that is shrinking year after year.

The retreat of corporate and academic voices

Major corporations and educational institutions that once led rainbow visibility have begun to change their language, reframe their policies, or reduce their public exposure out of caution. The consequences of this silence are already measurable:

• Fortune 500 companies: companies that maintain active and visible DEI policies currently represent only two-thirds of those recorded in 2023.
• University environments: across the academic institutions analyzed, 85% of recent diversity-related changes corresponded to closures, cancellations, weakening measures, or downward revisions.

Less volume on social media, more hate, and new ways to legitimize it

The study identifies a drastic shift in social media dynamics. On X, the global conversation about the LGBTIQ+ community has fallen by half. It dropped from 26.1 million messages in 2023 to just 12.7 million in the latest period. However, the contraction of the space has not brought calm: hate speech has increased in eight out of ten countries, with average growth of 38% compared with the previous four years. At this point, three out of every five messages analyzed constitute a direct attack.

The report also identifies a mutation in hostile language. Aggression no longer circulates only as explicit insult: it is also camouflaged within seemingly legitimate frames, such as protecting children, defending the traditional family, or resisting alleged ideological impositions. Overall, 19.1% of digital attacks link the community to a negative impact on education and, within that territory, seven out of ten references rely on narratives about children and young people.

Belonging remains fragile beyond the screen

Rainbow Ghosting does not, by itself, explain the violence or vulnerability faced by the LGBTIQ+ community, but it is taking place in a context where belonging remains unequal:

• Latin America accounts for 73% of documented murders of trans people worldwide, with an estimated life expectancy of just 35 years.
• Conversion therapy: in the U.S., nearly 700,000 adults have been subjected to conversion therapy, and 90% of LGBTIQ+ young people say that recent laws, policies, and debates about their rights have caused them stress or anxiety.

These data show why the withdrawal of public signals of support cannot be read as a neutral gesture: when cultural counterweights decrease, the community is left more exposed in an environment that already presents structural risks.

Algorithmic bias: AI is designing two unequal futures

LLYC’s analysis reveals a critical gap in generative artificial intelligence systems. When faced with equivalent life questions and concerns, the machine does not distribute the same opportunities for projection:

• Success vs. survival: concepts of autonomy and independence appear with 140% greater intensity in responses directed at cishet profiles. By contrast, LGBTIQ+ profiles receive 72% more associations with managing fear, 72% more references to respect and dignity, and 42% more terms related to exclusion or rejection.
• Emotional bias: seven out of ten responses directed at young people from the community are built around feelings and emotions, compared with only half (one out of two) in the case of cishet men.
• Visual stereotypes: the bias is also aesthetic. In 70% of neutral images generated, LGBTIQ+ profiles are forced into explicit symbols of their identity (such as flags), while 97% of profiles requested without context were represented by default as Caucasian people.

Responding again: five dimensions of sustained commitment

The document concludes with a proposal for organizations to move beyond digital silence and build signals of inclusion that last over time through five strategic pillars:

• Continuity: ensuring that diversity policies survive beyond June and remain present in culture, decisions, and day-to-day leadership.
• Coherence: aligning external communications with the real employee experience inside the company.
• Complexity: representing the LGBTIQ+ community through its goals, ambitions, and leadership capabilities, moving beyond narrow frames of vulnerability or discrimination.
• Future: providing tools that empower and give agency to new generations.
• Algorithmic accountability: actively auditing the technological tools and AI developments used in organizations to detect and mitigate representation biases.

About LLYC

LLYC is a global consulting firm that combines communications, creativity, and influence with the power of artificial intelligence and data to help leaders and organizations grow, protect the value of their businesses, and guide them through their most decisive moments. In a world in constant change, we help business leaders shape the future. Founded in 1995, the company has more than 1,000 professionals across 28 talent hubs in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. LLYC is recognized as one of the 35 largest independent companies in its sector globally, according to PRWeek and PRovoke rankings.

For more information:

Joseph DiBenedetto
joseph.dibenedetto@llyc.global
llyc.global