‘Misgendering’ Violates YouTube’s Guidelines, Exposing Genitals Apparently Doesn’t
By Michael Whittaker
YouTube has determined that uncensored footage of male genitalia does not violate its terms of service, but “misgendering” does.
On July 2, a video by “gay sex educator” Kevin Leonardo, “Removing BUTT HAIRS Using NAIR Cream – A Visual Guide!” was brought to the attention of the TeamYouTube Twitter account. During the video, Leonardo exposes his testicles and anus while demonstrating how to use the aforementioned products.
sorry to hear this! have you already reported this content? if not, the first step is to do that here: https://t.co/XBYch5Glr1 thank you!
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) July 2, 2023
The video was posted on June 25 and subsequently went viral as a result of widespread disgust and backlash on Twitter — it has 14 million views, nearly five times as many as Leonardo’s next most popular video, and according to reporting by The Publica, it has been disliked more than 167,000 times.
Two days later, Team YouTube responded to the user who brought the video to their attention, and said that in reviewing the video, they did not believe it violated their community guidelines, although they did age restrict it so that only adults could see it.