A new report from GLAAD has found that anti-LGBTQ+ hate is growing rapidly on social media — including on platforms owned by Google, like YouTube.

While Google has policies against hate speech, the company has recently removed gender identity or gender expression from YouTube’s list of protected characteristic groups, which suggests that the platform is “no longer protecting transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people from hate and discrimination.” (AP).

That omission matters.

Trans and nonbinary people — especially youth — face a relentless wave of harassment, misgendering, and coordinated abuse online. And without clear platform protections, they’re left with nowhere to turn and no system that takes their safety seriously.

We call on Google and YouTube leadership to immediately update all hate speech policies to explicitly include gender identity and gender expression as protected characteristics
Apply those standards across all platforms.

LGBTQ+ people deserve to be safe online. Hate speech is not free speech — it’s targeted harm.