Reading over rule VII again and again, sitting slack-jawed at the utter pointlessness of it all.

No half-sensible human being needs a classification for "political or sensitive social issues." We can see what the stream is about, we can choose to watch or not watch. We know who this rule is actually for: the deranged atavists who soil themselves at the sight of a queer person, who make up a large portion of Twitch viewership and the world today.

You say "hate and harassment have no place on Twitch." We can see very much that they do. We have eyes. We watched you give a slap on the wrist to one of your biggest streamers for trivializing the eradication of an entire people. We see it happening with these streamers every single day. Twitch looking the other way for their largest revenue streams is as old as Twitch itself. You HAVE rules against hate and harassment, and you continually ignore them whenever they're inconvenient for you.

In the rash of abhorrent behavior from your most high-profile streamers, you pull a chestnut straight from the fascism playbook: you shift the blame onto the marginalized. You throw up the illusion that THEY are the ones making all the noise, that THEY are the reason you have to put up these walls. You frame your failures as fighting "antisemitism and Islamophobia" when that is not, and has never been, the actual struggle. The only struggle that matters - that has EVER mattered - is between power and the powerless.

This rule is not about hate or harassment. It's about power protecting its interests. It has the same stink of Bezos blocking WaPo's endorsement of Harris. All you've accomplished is drawing attention to your utter brokenness.

I will continue to visibly support my LGBTQ+ family, advocate for reproductive rights, and discuss gender, sexuality and protests when I **** well feel like it. I will NEVER hide behind a label. No one who is offended by these ideas, no matter how powerful - ESPECIALLY how powerful - deserves their feelings coddled.

People can choose not to go to war but we can't choose not to be LGBTQ LOL
Like I'm sorry I can't leave my **** or my **** at home I'm trans what do you want me to do

Genuinely can't believe that this even needs to be said. Twitch are cowards, the lot of them

Why is Twitch acting like FanFiction Net was back in 2006, again? This is the end of 2024. Twitch, stop acting like you're owned by Elon Musk and Gamergate and grow some anti-discrimination balls for a change.

This rule is an attempt to brutally censor people's existence and to kowtow to facism.

I am gay, and my existence is not something that needs to be hidden away as "sensitive content." I will loudly, and proudly exist regardless of what you think your advertisers would want.

My very existence is not a “sensitive social issue,” it's a fact. We're here, we're queer, get over it.

This is basic human rights and should absolutely NOT be considered "sensitive social issues".

It's discrimination to label an entire group of people as "political" and thus marking any discussion they have about their lives and existence as "sensitive social issues"

comparing people of the LGBTQIA+ community with actual war is utterly crazy, it shouldn't be considered a political topic at all, no matter if you support it or not its something that if someone expresses themselves within the community they shouldn't be viewed as something potientially critical just for them simply living their life in a way that makes them feel comfortable and it can feel very dehumanizing when you want to share your personal expirence within the topic and it ends up being viewed as "controversial".

so people's existence and experiences are too controversial for twitch, can you go lower?

It's so cool being a political ideology just for existing. So cool.

We're not "sensitive social issues" we're normal ******* people.

Censoring free speech because they’re saying things you don’t want to hear? Can we maybe not do that, especially when it’s topics like people’s identities or current events

We are normal. Stop censoring us.

Censoring anyone for being themselves is NEVER a good idea. If you don't like them or agree with them move on to the next channel.

Hiding topics from people is not how you deal with issues you are having with people who are against others having basic human rights.
This is just a lazy way for you to try make it go away rather than deal with it.
It is similar to project 25 wanting to lable anything LGBTQ+ as *********** so they can then start to get rid of it.
Move back from this slope now before you completly lose your footing.

queer people aren't political, we're people that deserve to speak about ourselves and our experiences without censure

We absolutely need to remove the narrative that talking about our personal or shared experiences as queer people in inherently political. Yas from Heartstopper puts it perfectly "trans people aren’t a debate, we’re human beings".

I agree once we start hitting political policies / legislation conversations involving queer people that's when the label is appropriate. Some people watch content on Twitch to escape the dread they feel that the whole world is taking away their rights one at a time. I feel strongly about bringing up these issues, but someone may not be in the best headspace to hear about it, especially as there's nothing really positive in the bigger news for us right now. The label for me is currently worded as 'Politics and Sensitive Social Issues', even just a slight reword would make it clear that the label is only in regards to politics. I would add more clarity in the label description.

While I understand that the wording of this article includes: “ when the focus of the stream includes” but this wording will be elusive for people that are out there that want to erase LGBTQIA content creators. This addition to the article will likely cause way more work for Twitch employees and even more harassment for content creators that are out there just talking about issues because something was mentioned in chat.

For example: A viewer tunes in while a streamer is addressing something that was said in chat and that topic happens to be something the viewer does not like, that viewer could potentially submit a report and because the tag or label was not there the system automatically bans that content creator. That creator then has to appeal that ban which then involves staff at Twitch. Who then have to apologize and reverse said ban and has no other control over the situation other than that.

Please don’t open up marginalized people that are simply talking about things that affect the communities that they are part of based on their sexuality, sexual identity, gender identity, race, nationality, etc.

On the other wise of this, I agree that politics needs a label when it is the focus of the stream. Because it is an area of high contention and emotions. I prohibit political talk in my chat for this very reason, as I have very strong opinions on the things that affect my existence as a human being.

I honestly wish that there was just a black list for tags, that blocking a content creator based on never wanting to see their content means they won’t be in your recommended list or some option that people could use to make sure that they don’t see things they don’t want to see.