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Exclusive: Man Tried To Share His Regrets About Transgender Life. YouTube Censored It
The Federalist ^ | June 19, 2020 | Emily Jashinsky

Posted on 06/19/2020 8:06:20 AM PDT by Kaslin

'Our hate speech policy prohibits videos which assert that someone’s sexuality or gender identity is a disease or a mental illness,' YouTube said in a statement.


Information provided exclusively to The Federalist shows YouTube removed a Heritage Foundation video featuring testimony from a former transgender-identifying woman for violating the company’s hate speech policy. YouTube confirmed the decision in a Thursday email to The Federalist.

Now Heritage is fighting back with a new video, released first to The Federalist, in which Federalist contributor Walt Heyer doubles down.

“I said that children suffering from gender dysphoria should not be encouraged to try experimental hormones in surgery, and I stand by that statement,” Heyer emphasizes. The seven-minute clip, which Heritage will publish on YouTube, includes footage of Heyer’s remarks from the original panel, with the allegedly hateful six-word violation bleeped like a curse word.

The panel, convened last October, was billed as a “Summit on Protecting Children from Sexualization.” Heyer lived as a transgender-identifying woman for eight years, explaining on his website, SexChangeRegret.org, “I detransitioned more than 25 years ago. I learned the truth: Hormones and surgery may alter appearances, but nothing changes the immutable fact of your sex.”

Heyer now works as an activist against the kind of medical advice that led him astray, contributing, for instance, many pieces to this publication.

I stand before you with a mutilated body, with a life that was destroyed in many ways, redeemed by Christ certainly, but destroyed because I was affirmed and told how cute I look, how wonderful it was. And went to a gender therapist who said, ‘All you need to do is have hormones and reassignment surgery,” Heyer shared in the Heritage video removed from YouTube, re-uploaded this week with an emphasis on the website’s censorship.

In an email to The Federalist, YouTube passed along a statement that reads, “Our hate speech policy prohibits videos which assert that someone’s sexuality or gender identity is a disease or a mental illness. We quickly remove videos violating our policies when flagged by our users.”

YouTube pointed to a clause in its updated hate speech policy, which the company claims was developed with bipartisan input. The policy prohibits videos which “Claim that individuals or groups are physically or mentally inferior, deficient, or diseased based on any of the attributes noted for the purpose of inciting hatred. This includes statements that one group is less than another, calling them less intelligent, less capable, or damaged.”

The company also pointed to Heyer’s claim in the original video that individuals are “not born transgender. This is a childhood developmental disorder, that adults are perpetrating on our young people today, and our schools are complicit in this.”

Heritage appealed YouTube’s decision. In a phone conversation with Google and YouTube representatives, Heritage Director Emilie Kao argued Heyer’s definition of gender dysphoria was consistent with the definition provided by the DSM-V.

In a statement to The Federalist, Kao said, “There are plenty of YouTube videos on this topic that address gender dysphoria as the American Psychological Association does, which is to classify it as a mental disorder.”

“But,” she added, “YouTube has decided, under the guise of ‘hate speech,’ to censor the viewpoint that it doesn’t like. This won’t help children and families struggling with this disorder who want information from both sides of the debate.”

Heritage Vice President Rob Bluey called the move “another illustration of how the left will stop at nothing to silence conservative voices on sensitive topics like gender dysphoria.”

“Rather than engage in nuanced, good-faith discussions with people who have experienced gender dysphoria, YouTube wants to censor any viewpoint it doesn’t like—even if advocates of transgender ideology say the exact same banned phrase in other videos,” Bluey continued.

More than any major tech platform, YouTube sometimes allows voices shut out of the mainstream media to speak openly on controversial issues, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions. Much of the company’s success is based on its willingness and ability to host these conversations.

Whether or not YouTube applies its policy unevenly, the language is sufficiently broad and restrictive that it hampers mainstream proponents of one side from fairly participating in the debate. That’s troubling because children’s lives are on the line, and their futures depend on our ability to allow reasonable people to share their experiences in good faith so we can navigate these difficult waters.

As Heritage’s video plainly shows, Heyer has a compelling story to tell. His lived experience should be available as an obviously relevant contribution to the broader discussion. It is certainly not rooted in hate. Those inside YouTube and among its potential critics do everyone a disservice by pushing for hate speech policies that categorize reasonable dissent as intolerable bigotry.

Watch Heritage’s new video below.

YouTube Won't Allow You to Hear These 6 Words From Former Transgender Identifying Person Walt Heyer


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bigtech; censorship; culture; google; heritagefoundation; lgbtactivism; lgbtqkids; mentalhealth; mentalillness; polcorrectness; thf; transgender; transgenderactivism; transgenderism; transgenderregret; waltheyer; youtube

1 posted on 06/19/2020 8:06:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The DSM-5 moved this diagnosis out of the sexual disorders category and into a category of its own. (per Wikipedia). It is STILL in the DSM5 as a "condition". Would reading the DSM5 aloud violate YouTube standards?
2 posted on 06/19/2020 8:10:00 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Kaslin

Patient: “I’m unhappy.”
Doctor: “Would it help if I took surgical impalements and mutilated your genitals?”
Patient: “[shrug] Might as well give it a try.”


3 posted on 06/19/2020 8:10:36 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Kaslin

I’m starting to get tired of all the whining about the decisions that YouTube makes.... If we can’t get YouTube declared as a public forum for free speech, then we need to move on and just have a alternative place where real free speech is respected.

But we really should do one or other, and stop whining for YouTube to voluntarily allow speech it clearly doesn’t want. Either we force them by law, or we move on. Please, no more whining!


4 posted on 06/19/2020 8:17:16 AM PDT by FreedomVsControl
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To: Kaslin

Whatever the media censors, is absolute fact.


5 posted on 06/19/2020 8:19:13 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Never forget Justine Damond, murdered by a NON-WHITE, NON-CHRISTIAN cop. (Oh, and no riots))
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To: Kaslin

Lawsuit? Government regulation?


6 posted on 06/19/2020 8:26:58 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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To: ClearCase_guy
"impalements"

Double "OUCH!!!"

TXnMA
  

7 posted on 06/19/2020 8:31:57 AM PDT by TXnMA (Anagram: "PANDEMIC --> DEM PANIC")
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To: FreedomVsControl

I agree with you. We see how they are, they won’t be changing in our favor. Let’s establish our own fiefdom, with our own rules. Same thing goes for Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok. We would just have to learn how to protect our own websites from sabotage. As you know, Libs are intolerant of other views, and it’s likely they would try to shut any opposition down if they can.


8 posted on 06/19/2020 8:54:18 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: Kaslin

I moved on before I went there in the first place.


9 posted on 06/19/2020 10:45:44 AM PDT by Theophilous Meatyard III
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To: Kaslin

The left wants people broken mentally and physically mutilated. They also want to deny these people help when they need it. They are evil.


10 posted on 06/19/2020 2:51:05 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; ...

p


11 posted on 06/19/2020 10:07:29 PM PDT by bitt (Let justice be done though the heavens fall – Fiat justitia ruat cælum)
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To: Kaslin

also, see this:

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/06/19/youtube-weaponizes-hate-speech-policy-to-censor-heritage-foundation-video/

YouTube Weaponizes ‘Hate Speech’ Policy to Censor Heritage Foundation Video


12 posted on 06/19/2020 10:09:18 PM PDT by bitt (Let justice be done though the heavens fall – Fiat justitia ruat cælum)
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To: Kaslin

Just to show that youtube hates our politics as much a our religion they killed off George Webbs 4,000 videos. Webb did much to expose who the really bad guys of the world are.No way youtube could let those secrets out and they didn’t. Webb’s brilliance if off youtube “for now”. But, he’ll be back just like Arnold,Dirty Harry or Jack Ryan. Webb will be back.


13 posted on 06/20/2020 12:48:41 AM PDT by rodguy911 (FreeRepublic home of free because of the Brave)
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To: bitt

Youtube and all the rest are getting eviller and eviller. Or rather, their evil is showing more.


14 posted on 06/20/2020 7:59:23 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one Check of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.)
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