Suppressed for Saying Lesbian: How TikTok Censors Queer Visibility

Do you know what “lesbian beefleaf” means? I didn’t, until TikTok categorized my educational LGBTQ+ content under it. (PS It’s as NSFW as it sounds) 

I don’t make porn, and my daughter would die of embarrassment if I tried my hand at thirst traps. Real talk? I’m a teacher creating educational videos about queer history, identity, and culture. I’m fully clothed, citing sources, and doing the kind of content moderation the platform claims to want.

And TikTok still tags my work as “adult entertainment.” I get flagged for “Sex and Nudity.” Welcome to the sanitized dystopia of algorithmic erasure.

TikTok’s Dirty Little Metadata Secret: “Lesbian Beefleaf”

TikTok has an internal metadata system that classifies and tags content. So if you post a video about cool drone footage, it will likely get categorized under something like “drone footage” in your TikTok video’s metadata. This is a cool feature, but what if the system's understanding of what your video is about isn’t accurate? TikTok tells on itself sometimes.

There’s a dark gray search bar that appears under certain videos. It won’t appear on all of your videos, but sometimes the search bar suggests a term that indicates what other users type in to find content like yours. My lesbian flag, sapphic history, and identity terms content search bar often includes “lesbian,” which is accurate.

But I’ve also seen terms like “lesbian beefleaf” associated with my content. TikTok is the reason I now know what “lesbian beefleaf” is, the reason I had to Google that term in my poor, unsuspecting browser. I learned it’s used in the adult content space as code for lesbian porn.

I created a video about the history and nuance of the term “Gold Star Lesbian,’ and “lesbian beefleaf” was the related search term. Once your content is misclassified like that, those bogus “Sex and Nudity” flags start to make sense in the most sickening way possible. This is the modern age of lesbophobia, and we’ve taken it digital.

Censored for Teaching: My Content Isn’t Unsafe

My content started gaining traction during Pride Month. I’d had a few content flags, I won every appeal, but the numbers still weren’t working out. My videos were getting high engagement and strong like-to-view ratios, comment sections with honest community discussions. And yet, my views were capped at around 200–300 viewers. Over and over.

If you know TikTok’s distribution model, you know how this works: The algorithm pushes new videos to a “test pool” of 200–300 viewers. Based on how those viewers engage (watch time, likes, comments, shares), your video is either pushed out further or buried.

But even with strong engagement, my videos weren’t going anywhere. Then I started to notice more cracks in the system.

Buffer vs. TikTok: When the Math Isn’t Mathing

I use Buffer to schedule and track my content. For every video I post, I check both Buffer analytics and TikTok’s native metrics. They should match.

However, on multiple occasions, I had videos with visible views on TikTok, but zero reach showing in Buffer. That’s not technically possible. Views are reach. 

If a video has 270 views, that means 270 people have been reached. Buffer isn’t perfect, but it’s consistent. When it started showing zero reach across videos with normal engagement, I knew something was off.

Then came the disappearing analytics, grayed-out sharing options, and videos I couldn’t post to my Instagram story. That’s when I knew I was being actively suppressed.

A Case Study: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Let Her Speak

I created a video about the harm and impact of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as it related to my experience growing up. I published during Pride Month and within hours, it was flagged for sex and nudity. I was fully clothed, sitting in a t-shirt, calmly explaining the importance of queer inclusion. 

TikTok refused to push it out to the For You Page until I paid to promote it. The video got traction only after I boosted it, but when the content resonated with an audience that didn’t like it? It’s still under appeal. 

This Is Erasure, Not a Glitch

TikTok will say it prioritizes content quality over clout, but quality doesn’t matter if the platform mislabels your content before anyone sees it.

Quality doesn’t matter if “lesbian” = “porn” in TikTok’s system.

Quality doesn’t matter if we’re forced to censor our own identities just to show up in the feed. This is the new “And they were roommates,” and TikTok calls it “lesbian beefleaf.” We’re being algorithmically erased while TikTok sells rainbow filters and “safe space” stickers. Meanwhile, creators like me are being nudged to perform our visibility just to survive on a platform we helped build. We’re still expected to whisper our truth in a world that already screams over us.

Why This Matters

This isn’t about views, it’s about visibility. The next generation of queer kids deserves to see themselves represented. It’s the information for the late bloomers navigating comphet and looking for answers.

I create this content because I believe education is a form of liberation. But when TikTok punishes the word “lesbian,” we’re being re-coded into something we’re not. And that’s something worth talking about more.