News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

Hiding hate speech on YouTube

With any luck, if you start the video embedded at the end of the full post you'll get a message that the video is no longer available. If it does play, what you will find starts out harmlessly enough, mixing images from the 80's cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe with The Village People song "Macho Man." It looks like the kind of silly fan-created video found throughout YouTube. But then towards the end of the video, a homophobic message comes up, as can be seen below:

One of the disappointing aspects of this video is that it's been viewed over 20,000 times and saved to a user's favorite videos folder by 18 users. Amid all this exposure, saying "All fags burn in hell" has managed to go unflagged by YouTube users (or, alternately, the video has been flagged and passed by YouTube's screeners). Our sister site recently noted how LGBT content on YouTube is frequently suppressed by abuse of the site's "Flag as inappropriate" feature, while similar heterosexually-themed content gets a pass. Here, a blatantly homophobic message is going unnoticed.

It's likely that every time the video has been viewed, the viewer didn't watch it until the end and didn't see the example of hate speech -- therefore having no reason to think the video should be reported. That's a small consolation, however, since that still means a large number of viewers must've gotten to the hateful message at the end and the video remains unflagged.

What's truly fascinating, though, is that someone would spend hours poring through He-Man episodes to find the moments where Prince Adam comes off as effeminate, splicing them together, and syncing them to the music, just to throw in a bit of hate speech at the end. It's gay panic in pen-and-ink. Did the creator feel the need to assert his/her hatred for gays after spending all that time fixating on gay-coded images? What would motivate someone to put so much energy into this spiteful message in the first place? Or is it just a misfired attempt at politically incorrect humor? Whatever the reason, it appears that a large number of YouTube users were fine with "All fags burn in hell." Watch the full clip below.

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  • ThoughLoversBeLost's picture

    homophobia on youtube

    It would be sad if it wasn't so pathetic.

    Probably the same people who leave all the hateful comments on various blogs... one wonders if they really have jobs or do they spend their entire days behind a keyboard in a darkened room, devoid of sunlight, and have not been introduced to soap and water in months.

    Yes, they are quick to pull LGBT content, but are willing to let objectionable crap like this ride.  By the way, as of noon EDT, the clip is still working.

    It's not bad enough that you are marginalized in society, but now you are getting the same treatment online.

    Bunch of hypotwits (see my blog for definition of my new word).
    Average (4 votes):
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    ubik's picture

    I think they took an

    I think they took an existing He-Man/Macho Man clip and just added the homophobic ending. I thought I saw this before, without the message.

    And yes, youtube is full of homophobes. I have some clips with gay content on my profile ( http://youtube.com/profile?user=maledei), and I spent several hours deleting homophobic messsages and banning users from my videos (which is a satisfying activity, if I may say). I got enough "burn in hell, fag" to last for two lifetimes.

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    OTTO's picture

    He-Man is proud to be G-A-Y

    hypotwits is right !

    Time and time again gay or lesbian content in the work place or universities get tagged and pulled JUST BECAUSE its gay. Many g & L sites would not even rate a PG if it was "rated" on the same scale as hets.

    Though Lovers be lost (I liked your site BTW, if you like sports or athletes there is a great article and gallery on super HOT ian Roberts over our fellow  AfterElton user site called QueerTwoCents.com).

    YouTube should be much better at moderating their site. Tsk tsk. 

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    ThoughLoversBeLost's picture

    QTC

    Otto, thank you.  I love QueerTwoCents.com!  That site along with AfterElton are on my list of MUST READ blogs.  I visit both daily for my dose of REAL news on what's up in our community.
    OTTO's picture

    Ubik I am sorry

    to read that you had to experience homophobic messages on your site.

    :(

    Glad you banned the buggers from using your site!!!!

    :)

    Average (3 votes):
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    sharkgrrrl's picture

    i'm often distressed

    after spending any time on you-tube. you can read the most awful hateful things within 5 minutes of clicking around. ack

    i flagged the video as offensive, so I'll be interested to see what happens.
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    ldrake2578's picture

    The video was FINALLY taken down!

    I too flagged the video, but no action was taken. Unfortunately, you are not able to send specific information indicating the location of offensive material in the flag option, so I felt the censors weren't watching the entire video. Pissed off, I send YouTube an email and received the following response (my email is included at the bottom):

    ________________________________

    Hi,

    Thanks for your email. This video has been removed from our site for a
    Community Guidelines violation ( www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
    ).
    If you continue to have similar issues, please feel free to contact us
    again.

    Regards,

    Amy
    The YouTube Team


    Original Message Follows:
    ------------------------
    From:
    Subject: YouTube Support
    Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 18:38:25 -0700

    This video contains hate speech concerning gay men. I have previously
    reported this video to no avail. At 1'36" the message "ALL FAGS BURN IN
    HELL!!!" appears. I certainly feel that violates community standards
    stated in the YouTube.com TOS. Please contact me regarding this matter.
    If
    this doesn't violate the TOS, please tell me why. Thank you.


    username: ********
    Language: en
    subject: complaint
    vidcomplaint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH9vpRKlcHQ
    contactuser: no
    invid: no
    reporteduser: keldorskeletor
    blockuser: no
    IssueType: policy

    __________________________

    I checked, and the video is FINALLY removed. Pardon my language, but it is about fucking time. I hated that video! And thank each and every one of you who wrote them about this matter. It is disgusting that videos like these are able to abound on this site.

    Please take care and have a great day!

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    michael's picture

    Thanks for staying on top of it and

    for the update! Things got so crazy with David Hyde Pierce yesterday that I didn't have time to follow-up. Thanks to everyone who emailed YouTube to complain.
    sharkgrrrl's picture

    good job

    i never received any notification that it was taken down or that my message was received. granted i'm new as a youtube user, so i don't know if they generally contact people who complain. i only received a message saying they received my complaint. kudos to you for following through even more 
    QueerTwoCents.com's picture

    AfterElton Rocks!

    Thanks for the shout-out and support, Otto and Though Lovers Be Lost!

     ...along with AfterElton are on my list of MUST READ blogs.  I visit both daily for my dose of REAL news on what's up in our community. - Though Lovers Be Lost

    AfterElton Rocks!

    Since Michael Jensen took over as Editor 18 months ago the site has grown immensely and he, along with Associate Editor Brian Juergens (and all the AE team) have made AfterElton the premier site for gay and bisexual men to read everyday.

    QTC

    P.S. 

    Some of the galleries on QueerTwoCents.com are not suitable for work.

    Average (2 votes):
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    michael's picture

    Thank, QTC! What's your

    address again so I can mail you that $20 again? LOL.
    QueerTwoCents.com's picture

    Only 20 bucks...

    Only 20.00 bucks?

    Hey, that's not right I distinctly remember you saying $40.00 bucks and I quote, "I'll throw in the AfterElton t-shirt and coffee mug set (retail value $29.99)"

    $20.00 bucks...hmmm...Oh, all right (do I at least get the coffee mug?)

    My address is 1313 Mockingbird Lane...

    Have a GREAT week.

     J

    QTC

    Average (2 votes):
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    michael's picture

    LOL. But that's

    Canadian right? Still a bargain!

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