LGBTQ Incorporated: YouTube and the Management of Diversity

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people use the video-sharing service YouTube to educate and entertain audiences. However, YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, has a fraught history with LGBTQ users. Informed by digital ethnography and content analysis, this paper illustrates the company's strategic incorporation of LGBTQ creators and their video content. On the one hand, I show how YouTube publicly presents LGBTQ people's diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, and mental health status. On the other hand, the platform privately discriminates against LGBTQ users creating content about queer sex education, lesbian sexuality, and transgender identity-topics in conflict with advertising and community guidelines. YouTube's discriminatory practices (closely tied to automated algorithms) include demonetization, age restriction, video deletion, account termination, and harassment facilitation. Ultimately, this paper cautions against uncritical celebrations of social media industries' recognition of the LGBTQ community.