Proud To Be

YouTube is a welcoming place for diverse people to express themselves, and provide voices that people may otherwise never hear. This is a good thing in itself, but YouTube has also long been an advocate for LGBTQ people, our human rights, and the importance of us sharing our voice.

Here’s what they said in the YouTube description of the video up top:

From commemorating Pride parades to opening up about transitions and explaining the ABCs of LGBT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFqLr...), YouTube is a place where anyone can belong no matter who they are or who they love. That is why today we want to help people honor and celebrate who they’re #ProudToBe.

Now, more than ever, it’s important that we help accept, love, and celebrate one another. In the wake of the tragic events in Orlando, we stand together in support of the LGBTQ community. We stand together with everyone who has the courage to own and share their identity. We stand together to show the power of solidarity, the power of love, the power of pride. To those beautiful and brave voices who continue to make YouTube the vibrant, diverse and empathetic community it is, we are #ProudToBe with you. [Links in the original]

YouTube encourages people to make and share videos with the #ProudToBe tag in the title so others can find them. I imagine some opponents of diversity and love will make videos specifically to be dicks, just because they can. Rather than exercising their free speech right of dissent, many of them will just be trying to cause trouble. YouTube, like all of the Internet, is plagued with trolls.

But YouTube has also been an inclusive place where many diverse voices can be heard, and the bigots can’t drown that out. So, I think this is a good thing, and I hope there’s a huge variety of videos shared.

I’m looking forward to seeing what people are #ProudToBe.