YouTube-Google Accused of Homophobia for Promoting My Video on LGBTQ Channels
I never thought I'd see the day when YouTube and Google were accused of homophobia, but that day has come. And somehow, I'm right in the thick of it. YouTube and Google are getting slammed for advertising one of my videos.
Here's the relevant background.
On May 2, we launched the first video in our new animated series called "Consider This." The video was entitled "Can You Be Gay and Christian?" and we promoted it through all of our normal social media and internet channels. We also paid for advertising on Facebook and YouTube. (Although we have roughly 1,300 videos on our YouTube channel, this was the first video we ever paid to advertise there.)
Our intended audience was primarily the conservative Christian community, because of which the ad words we used were Faith, Beliefs, Bible, Christian, Christianity, Family, Gay, God, Homosexual, Marriage.
The last thing we planned to do was advertise on LGBT-related channels on YouTube. That was never our intent or goal.
Apparently though, based on the subject matter and the words "gay" and "homosexual," an ad for the video began appearing on some LGBT channels.
This became apparent when disgruntled viewers began posting comments like, "Horrible Human Being. You're a moron. I just saw this s---bags advertisement telling me I'm not gay!" And, "You make me sincerely sick, keep your dumb ads Off my page, go make your money somewhere else hypocrite." And, "Um can you please get this disgusting advertisement off my youtube videos."
It looks like we unintentionally hit a nerve! (Note also that we were not making money on this video; we were paying to get the message out.)
I also noticed a sudden surge of thumbs down responses to the video, along with a barrage of nasty and negative comments. The video was reaching a whole new audience.
A June 1 headline on LGBTQ nation asked, "Why is YouTube running anti-LGBTQ ads before videos?"
One of the ads in question featured a video from the Alliance Defending Freedom. But the video featured in the article was "Can You Be Gay and Christian."
The article noted that, "YouTube has come under fire for putting anti-LGBTQ ads on LGBTQ videos.
"Twitter user Jace Aarons tweeted an example. He found an ad from Michael Brown, a conservative radio host, playing before a video from Chase Ross, a transgender YouTuber." How in the world did our ad end up there?
This prompted Chase (who has 145,000 subscribers) to express his frustration in his own YouTube video. In it, he took YouTube to task for allowing "an anti-LGBT ad, a very homophobic and transphobic company [to] advertise their message, their conversion therapy, their horrible, like, mean messages on my LGBT videos."
He also mocked YouTube for being "diverse" something like "once a month." (Obviously, Chase missed the irony of excoriating YouTube for allowing diverse viewpoints, since "diversity" in his book means pro-LGBT only.)
Chase was also mortified that anyone in 2018 could possibly argue that marriage was the union of a man and a woman. "Like we're still here? Like literally, what year are we in? 1810? 1940? Where are we?"
Pink News reported on this as well, with a headline stating, "YouTube under fire over 'homophobic' adverts potentially targeting LGBT YouTubers.
Read more about why Youtube-Google was Accused of Homophobia for Promotiong a Video on The Christian Post.