Teen queer artist kills self after receiving homophobic comments on Instagram

A 16-year-old queer artist allegedly died by suicide on Tuesday after facing a slew of hate comments on an Instagram Reel that they posted on Diwali.

According to reports, the teen, identified as Priyanshu Yadav from Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain, hanged themself using their mother’s dupatta on November 21 while they were alone at home.

Priyanshu, a self-taught makeup artist and social media influencer with over 23,000 followers on Instagram, used to post content on makeup, beauty and skincare. The reel the artist posted on Diwali was a transition video of them in a red sari which garnered thousands of homophobic and hateful comments.

Activist and actor Trineta Haldar Gummaraju of Made In Heaven-fame claimed that there are over 4,000 homophobic remarks in the comment section of the artist's video, which abetted them to die by suicide.

“Self taught makeup artist, so much grace, so beautiful. They posted a Diwali reel in a saree like so many of us did. After all, the online space is safer than the real world for so many of us. But is it, though? 4000+ hate comments on their reel. The number of profiles, educated or otherwise, dedicated to humiliating queer and trans folk - profiles that never get taken down - is absurd,” she posted on her Instagram handle.

“The hashtag #JusticeForPranshu shows no posts, because some apparently violate community guidelines. There have been times I’ve reported profiles spewing absolute and pure hate with 60k+ followers personally to Meta folks we know. They don’t get taken down. Are we happy now? A child is gone. Just like that,” her post read.

Several members of the LGBTQIA+ community have voiced their grief and concern over the incident and called for stringent measures to tackle cyberbullying on social media platforms.