Several LGBT YouTubers are complaining
after seeing anti-LGBT ads appear before
their videos. You're watching What's
Trending, I'm Martine Beerman. Make sure
to subscribe for more trending and
social media news stories daily. This
started with a tweet from Shannon Taylor
who posts videos to her YouTube channel
"Hey There I'm Shannon" and is the
vocalist for the band New Pollution. She
wrote: "Hey @TeamYouTube do you mind
explaining why I'm receiving LITERAL
ANTI-LGBT organization advertisements
now? (Yep, with a donation link) I thought
the whole point was to keep the site
"non-political" and the videos "advertised
friendly". What even is this garbage? The
ad is from the Alliance Defending
Freedom and the title of the video is
"Should The Government Force People To
Create Art That Violates Their Beliefs?"
The government was threatening to sue me
unless I designed floral arrangements for
same-sex weddings. I was in shock. Which
is a totally normal thing to put on a
website where people are creating
expressive art, right? The ad features
florist Barronelle Stutzman, who was sued
by Washington's Attorney General for
refusing to prepare floral arrangements
for a same-sex wedding, in violation of
the state's anti-discrimination law. In
2017, the state's Supreme Court ruled
unanimously against Stutzman, arguing
that floral arrangements are not a
protected form of speech under the First
Amendment. And since she agreed that
making a floral arrangement for an
atheist couple doesn't mean that she's
endorsing atheism, then it should
probably mean that if she's making a
floral arrangement for a homosexual
couple it doesn't necessarily mean that
she's endorsing homosexuality. Stutzman's
lawyers want the federal Supreme Court
to weigh in and they might be doing that
pretty soon. In the case of Masterpiece
Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights
Commission. Baker Jack Phillips was
ordered by the state of Colorado to make
a cake for a same-sex couple, and he
believes he has the right to refuse. I
believe that the Bible teaches that
homosexuality is wrong and to
participate in a sin is wrong for me.
I believe that the First Amendment
protects my freedom of religion. That
case is gonna be decided by the Supreme
Court in the next few weeks. But let's
get back to that ad with Stutzman. It's
asking for donations to the Alliance
Defending Freedom, which fights in court,
depending on your point of view, for
religious freedom, or against
equality for same-sex couples. The
Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled
the ADF a hate group for linking
homosexuality to pedophilia and arguing
that members of the LGBTQ+ community
will lead to the destruction of American
society. And members of the LGBTQ+
community are very obviously outraged at
not just seeing these videos on YouTube,
but on their own videos. Gaby Dunn
tweeted that some of her fans claim to
have seen the ad on Just Between Us
videos and Steve Boebi found one playing
in front of an Anna Akana video. And an
ad called
"Can You Be Gay And Christian" appears
before a video from transgender YoutTuber
Chase Ross. So you could look at this two
different ways. On one side maybe
YouTube's algorithm is just messing up and
it's finding words like
transgender and gay and then assuming
that ads that condemn that behavior
would be appropriate for the video. Or
you could just say this is hateful and
it shouldn't be on YouTube period.
Especially when far less objectionable
content has been demonetized or deleted.
In fact, Chase Ross has good evidence
that his videos have been demonetized
just for using the word 'transgender' and
he's even afraid at some point that if
his videos keep getting flagged, his
channel might get deleted.
Why are videos that were flagged being
flagged again even if they're age
restricted? Why? Because my videos, after
they're age restricted, are still being
flagged. This is putting up a huge red
flag for YouTube and I feel like because
of this they're going to take my account
and see it and delete it. And I'm not
basing this off of like 'Oh this is what
I think YouTube is'. No. I have concrete
evidence that this is happening. Again,
whichever side of this issue you come
down on, it definitely seems at this
point that YouTube is promoting anti-
LGBTQ+ community ads at the expense of
LGBTQ+ creators. And YouTube's ad
requirements only prohibit adult content
and shocking content. Doesn't say
anything about hate speech, or if YouTube
would even consider what these ads are
saying hate speech. In the meantime,
LGBTQ+ creators and allies are
understandably very upset about this.
Dodie tweeted: "How the actual is YouTube
automatically branding anything LGBTQ+ not suitable for advertising and
yet allowing anti gay
(ANTI-GAY?!! what is this 1940s?!) adverts on
our videos?! I mean that's just plain and
simple homophobia right?! the platform we
use is homophobic?" And Calum McSwiggan
tweeted: "I'm gonna give YouTube the
benefit of the doubt and assume the
anti-gay adverts I'm seeing are a
mistake. Please correct this @TeamYouTube,
your LGBTQ+ content creators don't want
these adverts on our videos, especially
not in pride month." At the time that this
video is being made right now, YouTube
has not yet addressed the situation,
though they have pointed out on Twitter
that ads can be reported if users or
creators feel they've appeared in error.
I really hope that this is just an
algorithmic error on YouTube's part, but
once this is all sorted out, my hope is
that in the future creators will maybe
be able to have more of a say in the
type of ads that appear on their channel.
Maybe you'll even get to pick them. Who
knows? Would you consider these ads hate
speech? Should they be allowed on YouTube?
Let us know in the comments, and for more
trends head to whatstrending.com.
