diff --git a/lib/banzai/filter/abstract_reference_filter.rb b/lib/banzai/filter/abstract_reference_filter.rb
index 36d8c12e2b31f2c02cf5c79841957fbc391b115e..b99ccd98624c0ef02324612b4c398622f6eb14ee 100644
--- a/lib/banzai/filter/abstract_reference_filter.rb
+++ b/lib/banzai/filter/abstract_reference_filter.rb
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ module Banzai
           project = project_from_ref(project_ref)
 
           if project && object = find_object(project, id)
-            title = escape_once(object_link_title(object))
+            title = object_link_title(object)
             klass = reference_class(object_sym)
 
             data  = data_attribute(
@@ -114,11 +114,11 @@ module Banzai
             url = matches[:url] if matches.names.include?("url")
             url ||= url_for_object(object, project)
 
-            text = link_text || escape_once(object_link_text(object, matches))
+            text = link_text || object_link_text(object, matches)
 
             %(<a href="#{url}" #{data}
-                 title="#{title}"
-                 class="#{klass}">#{text}</a>)
+                 title="#{escape_once(title)}"
+                 class="#{klass}">#{escape_once(text)}</a>)
           else
             match
           end
diff --git a/lib/banzai/filter/reference_filter.rb b/lib/banzai/filter/reference_filter.rb
index c183702516af51915672d6dcaa7f8942c3eb054f..a22a7a7afd31e379b01a9fbec41cf04d143c5878 100644
--- a/lib/banzai/filter/reference_filter.rb
+++ b/lib/banzai/filter/reference_filter.rb
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ module Banzai
       # Returns a String
       def data_attribute(attributes = {})
         attributes[:reference_filter] = self.class.name.demodulize
-        attributes.map { |key, value| %Q(data-#{key.to_s.dasherize}="#{value}") }.join(" ")
+        attributes.map { |key, value| %Q(data-#{key.to_s.dasherize}="#{escape_once(value)}") }.join(" ")
       end
 
       def escape_once(html)