If you want to silence queer people please be ready to take it up to federal courts.

I can't wrap my head around how absolutely tone deaf and disrespectful the article is.

Calling LGBTQ+ as controversial is like calling liking blond women or liking a specific hairstyle controversial

LGBTQ+ should not at all be considered controversial and calling it that only validates horrible ideas that shouldn‘t exist

And for that same reason anti-LGBTQ+ views should be completely banned from the platform

I’m truly flummoxed with this decision. Yes, we are in extremely unprecedented times, but the reason for this is purely reliant on the fact that a extremely vocal group of people want to actively suppress and put down the idea that anyone outside the heteronormative narrative is worthy to share their opinion or viewpoint on living in the modern world. There are countless examples throughout history where separating people based on identity and body function leads to a volatile system that seeks to destroy any evidence of their existence. For people that are queer, the people that immigrate to seek asylum for their own safety, and the people that view reproductive freedom as a life saving medical procedure are the ones whose stories are being snuffed by this arbitrary change in Twitch’s rules. This addition to twitch’s policy isn’t a change for protection, this is the beginning of a long line of censorship.

My existence is not political and should not be treated as such.

This is a horrible backwards move that is very anti-LGBTQIA+ on Twitch's end. Twitch, you say this is "safe place" for our community, but you are now saying that our very existence is deemed "content label worthy" right next to tags such as "gambling" and "drug use" It's unacceptable. You can't pretend to be an inclusive community with things like the pride guild and pride month features and then have this content label.

Human rights are not a "sensitive social issue" and are not subject to stigmatization. This is literally no different than demanding anyone who talks about black rights or black topics to tag/label their stream to let people know ahead of time. It's vile, it's disgusting, and needs to be resolved.

When it comes to the political aspect of LGBTQ+ topics, this only exists because of all the discrimination and hate directed at the community. We have to fight for our rights because nobody else will. Groups are constantly trying to turn us into villains and trying to silence us and force us out of sight. They want us dead. Plain and simple. We have to be political to survive. We have to be vocal to survive. We can't just "not be" LGBTQ+ just like a black person can't just "not be" black.

Basic human rights and liberties are not "sensitive social issues" this whole thing is ********. Horrible ******* policy.

I understand what Twitch is trying to accomplish with the policy as a whole. However, the particular bullet point above in particular stands out. It is alarming to think that this would be mentioned in the same breath as foreign conflict and national security. Allow me to elaborate.

LGBT is a major part of a person's identity, and expressing it is as natural as sharing one's preference in music. I do notice the policy specifies the discussion of legislation, but this is still problematic. Legislation on this topic often seeks to undermine the rights of LGBT people to exist, plain and simple. Because of this, political legislation is fundamentally entangled with a person's identity, as that is precisely what the legislation targets.

Additionally, many members of the LGBT community, especially those in vulnerable areas, already have limited opportunities for self-expression, which severely impacts their mental health. Many of these people turn to online platforms for safe interaction, allowing them to be their authentic selves. Marginalizing their identity -- and to be clear, that IS what this policy achieves -- will be a further blow to their mental well-being.

Were this policy to be implemented decades ago, this policy would have to be implemented about other minority groups being targeted by political legislation. And we know how entities that contributed to this harassment are remembered. Those that consider discussion of LGBT topics to be controversial are those that wish to strip away people's right to exist. This is a case of oppressor versus victim. Even if you are only requiring content to be labelled rather than removed, this limiting of self-expression is siding with the oppressor as it directly aligns with their objective.

If Twitch allows this to go forward it will set a disturbing precedent for itself and for other platforms. I kindly ask you to reconsider your policy and its implications.

This is an insanely stupid, blatantly dumb idea put forward by someone who clearly has never been targeted by hate raiders. Like, do they not see that forcing anyone LGBTQ+ to tag themselves is just giving scumbags a free list of people to target? Nobody's sexual orientation or gender identity is political, as much as crusty TERFs or bigoted politicians try to insist it is. Our existence isn't political and Twitch needs to remove this clause or they'll just be facilitating the targeting and harassment of streamers.

Quite frankly, if this clause stays in place then it would make me wonder if whoever is in charge of writing the rules is biased towards LGBTQ+ people in the first place. Any other sensible platform would, yknow, actually consult LGBTQ+ people first so they're not putting in place an extremely dangerous, horrifically stupid clause that only aids people aiming to use the platform to harass and post targeted bigotry towards users.

This is nothing less than yet another attempt to stifle minority voices and is on the face of it reprehensible. The only people who consider these issues “sensitive” are those who want to do away with them—all of them—and think nothing of employing every manner of violence, whether overt or sub rosa, to accomplish that end: fascists, homophobes, transphobes, bigots, racists, misogynists, and anyone else with hate in their hearts.

Why are you labeling human beings as something political, sensitive and controversial?

Hard agree. That "sensitive social issues" bulletpoint is pretty blatantly being pushed by cowards scared of conservatives being contradicted in any way.
LGBT people existing and talking about LGBT matters should NOT be swept under the rug of "sensitive social issues" nor "explicit content".
We are tired of our ability to live being a political football purely because conservatives reject our very existence and are trying to shove us all back into the closet however they can as part of the Culture War ********.

Immigrants likewise should not be treated as a political football. They are *people*. There is nothing that should be considered "sensitive" nor "explicit" about talking about such people.

That bulletpoint is a big ol' middle finger to the people it is applying to.
We are trying to live our lives, have some fun on streams, and trying to fight back against bigots that would love nothing more than for all of us to be abused and rendered third class citizens at best, outright dead at worst.

Show some backbone and remove that farcical part of the policy.
You can choose to appeal to the bigots or the people they're trying to abuse, NOT both.

really ******* cringe that twitch would do this.

Absolute lunacy that reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ people existing are on the same level as discussing ongoing genocides, elections and national security according to Twitch.

100% will be used to discriminate against and censor LGBTQ+ people as you can't just stop being gay or trans.

Yes we should remove this LGBTQ people are not a "sensitive issue"

LGBTQ+ folks aren't political. Their existence is not political. Excise this failure of a policy, Twitch.

These aren’t simply “topics”, these are people and their lives that are being put in a bad light.
Existing and talking about your life is NOT something that should be labeled.
ESPECIALLY not on the same level as war.

LGBTQIA+ related topics aren’t controversial political issues, this new policy is silencing the existence, experience and pain of people who are just trying to live as themselves.
The freedom of being who you want to be & being able to show it with pride is NOT something that should be taken away or put in a bad light!

This policy change *disgusts* me. My life as a transgender queer woman is not a political topic, nor is my right to live freely as myself. Crafting policy that suggests I'm somehow in the wrong to express my desire for basic human rights and decency is abhorrent.

Because you view my life as a controversial political topic, I will be tagging every single stream with the "Politics and Sensitive Social Issues" content warning until this policy is changed, in order to draw attention to this horrendous guideline update.

Including LGBTQIA+ topics in this only axes an entire sector of your user base while serving no purpose but to reinforce those that are bigoted. I legit thought Twitch was pro LGBTQ and this is a heartbreaking wake up call.

LGBTQ creators should be allowed to speak freely on their experience and perspectives without being segregated by label.

I'm trans I just want a place were I can express my self freely