A lesbian couple has been voicing their disbelief when a photo they shared on social media was flagged and removed from the site.

The photo (above) depicts the couple with their son Alex snuggled up in bed, it was shared on several other pages reaching around 200,000 people before it was flagged and removed.

Jane and Veronica have long been sharing photos of their family life on social media, Veronica is a blogger and has her own lifestyle site.

In response to the photo being taken down, Veronica posted a response via Instagram story where she asked, “I only see love, what about you? Because that’s what’s shown in the image: A family,”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcIhy2whr4j/?taken-by=oh.mamiblue

They have started using a hashtag protesting the blatant homophobia, #YoSoloVeoAmor (or I only see love). It started to go viral as their followers and other sites have shared photos of their own family using the hashtag.

People then started reporting the hashtag which also got blocked by Instagram. The site claims that when a large number of people report something, the bots automatically block it but this seems to happen disproportionately so with the LGBTQ+ community.

“We are a happy family and we are strong, these things no longer hurt us, but there are people right now who take their own lives because of things like these, there are people being bullied, harassed and beaten just for being LGBT,” Veronica told BuzzFeed Spain.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcdFV6qhS1N/?taken-by=oh.mamiblue

It has stirred the debate regarding how the internet has been sexualising queer, lesbian and bisexual women. Everything from holding hands to family moments is now being seen as a violation of community standards.

Instagram is not alone in this, almost every other social media platforms seem too heavy-handed in terms of censorship of LGBTQ+ related content.

Corrine Kai, managing editor of Go said: “The question that I keep coming back to is, why are LGBTQ daily lives seen as overtly sexual? Our conversations about safer sex. Our cute proposal videos. Our family portraits. Our conversations about homophobic policies. Anytime we use the word lesbian, queer, trans, bisexual, or gay — we are immediately sexualized.”