Happily, a large majority of #ComingOut posts invoke positive reactions on people's feeds. While part of this likely involves individuals curating their timelines and followers, especially within the LGBTQ+ community, only six percent of reactions on the posts were negative. Even after the 2016 election, neutral reactions rose while negative reactions remained infrequent. According to Zava's results, Instagram posts featuring #ComingOut have been "liked" 66.4 million times.
Of course, while #ComingOut reactions gauge the growing positivity toward the LGBTQ+ community in public, the queer community still faces many obstacles and dangers, from violence against transgender folks especially to cake shops refusing commissions from gay couples, along with high rates of suicide. The drop in median "likes" in 2016 shows the impact of real-life tragedies on the community — from the Pulse nightclub attack to the tumultuous 2016 election and the rise of the alt-right that year — but the bounceback in 2017 and 2018 reflect a society moving toward change.
