I know in the past I have written about the LGBTQIA various times about different things. So this kind of thing seems to be no surprise to me when it comes to discrimination against my community. Recently youtube came out with a restriction that will basically restrict any content or creator related to the LGBTQIA, which can cause an uprising in the community and supporters. Honestly, when I did my research and read up on it, it just doesn't make any sense. Not only did it anger and upset me but it makes me question the world we live in. To think that we as a world have come so far with LGBT rights, making same sex marriage legal in all fifty states, maybe I was wrong. I have quite a few questions and comments on this situation.

My first question is, why would youtube do this? Restricted mode is basically there to block out any triggering or objectify-able content on their site. However, a lot of the content on Youtube is made my LGBT creators or have content regarding LGBT. So they really just want a browser that has safe content for their viewers who have restricted mode on. Which yes, this is a good idea for some sensitive topics, however, I do not think that topics related to the LGBTQIA should be blocked because that means that subjects related to LGBTQIA correlates to people's beliefs of the LGBT as "not morally right" or "not family friendly" it is seen as a bad thing and that sexuality is looked down upon in this sense.

Another thing I want to bring up is that we live in a generation where we can openly talk about sexuality. Sexuality may not be normalized but it should be because the wonderful thing about sexuality is education and the fact that it is fluid. Even though we have made a point about Sexuality being fluid and a wonderful thing there is still a lot of discrimination and prejudice. This may cause some people who have not come out yet to stay away and be closeted. A platform such as Youtube can be a creative and helpful way for reaching out and educating these LGBT youth on what is going on. For example, I came out as Asexual two years ago, I thought there was something wrong with me. I could not find a way to relate to anybody, I had so many questions and then I went to Youtube for more information. I noticed that some of my favorite Youtubers such as Ricky Dillion, are in fact Asexual. So for Youtube to make this mistake in the system is questionable.

Youtube did post on their twitter @YTCreators a statement regarding the issue with restriction mode. They pledged to fix it, yet it has been about a week since this has happened and it has not been fixed. I do not know how long it takes to fix a problem like this, I am definitely not tech savy, however, you would think because so many people are questioning this and getting on their case about it that they would do something immediately considering they are a supporter of the LGBTQIA community.

Let's break all of this down real quick, let's start with the first few sentences:

"We are so proud to represent LGBTQ+ voices on our platform--They're a key part of what YouTube is all about. The intention of Restricted Mode is to filter out mature content for the tiny subset of users who want a more limited experience."

So I already explained this and it seems pretty straight forward, however, why would you make a big deal out of restricted mode for users, such as children? Children are the only tiny subset of users that you could have, and its never caused a problem before so why now? Let's take a look at the next sentence:

"LGBTQ+ videos are available in Restricted Mode, but videos that discuss more sensitive issues may not be."

Okay, YouTube, then explain why creators like Seaine Love who is a trans-woman has her journey being transgendered documented on her channel, yet none of the videos show up in restricted mode. This has happened to many other YouTubers such as Tyler Oakley for making videos about being Gay. I would also like to know about what part of sexuality is sensitive? It is a normal thing and yeah it might be sensitive for the time being but, how are these kids going to relate to someone if they don't see the harsher side of it? The rest of the message is an apology which frankly I think is just another way of trying to sweep it under the rug because if so many people are complaining then they should have fixed it by now. The other question is do you think YouTube is purposely restricting LGBTQ+ content?