YouTube quietly scrubbed the phrase “gender identity and expression” from its public-facing hate speech policy earlier this year, prompting concern fromLGBTQ+ advocates who warn the change removes clarity around protections for transgender and nonbinary users. According to the company, there’s no change in policy. 

However, the altered language occurred between January 29 and February 6, according to archived versions of the policy reviewed by The Advocate via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. On January 29, the platform’s hate speech policy explicitly barred content that promotes violence or hatred based on “gender identity and expression.” By February 6, the next time a snapshot of the page was stored in the archive, that language was no longer listed. Instead, the revised version grouped “Sex, Gender, or Sexual Orientation” as protected categories, omitting any reference to gender identity.

A YouTube spokesperson told journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Substack newsletter User Mag, which first reported the change, that the update was part of routine “copy edits” and claimed enforcement of hate speech policies remains unchanged. However, the platform has not explained why it chose to remove an explicit reference to gender identity, a term that is foundational to many users’ lived experiences and protections under civil rights law in several jurisdictions.

YouTube reiterated its position in a statement to The Advocate. “Our hate speech policies haven’t changed,” a YouTube spokesperson said. They also said that “as we told the reporter,” the User Mag story mischaracterized the copy edits made to YouTube’s Help Center.

The change comes as the Trump administration moves aggressively to erase federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people. Just hours after returning to office on January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize two sexes — male and female — determined at birth. The order requires federal agencies to remove references to “gender identity” from policies, identification documents, healthcare programs, and nondiscrimination protections.

Advocacy groups and LGBTQ+ creators say the revision is more than cosmetic — it’s a dangerous rollback at a time when transgender people face escalating attacks both online and offline.

“The larger implications of YouTube’s actions should concern everyone,” a spokesperson for GLAAD told The Advocate. “When a company, or political leaders, decide that certain groups of people are to be seen as less than others — it too often results in real-world harm. YouTube and other platforms should be protecting LGBTQ creators and users during a time when right-wing extremists and others are seeking to harm them.”

Longtime trans YouTube creator Samantha Lux told User Mag she’d noticed a rise in hateful rhetoric on the platform. “The right-wing creators have gotten a lot more brave about how they talk about trans issues,” Lux said. “If you say that you’re protecting against gender, it’s more like you can’t discriminate against somebody for being a woman. But gender identity really zones in on the trans aspect of it.”

The update comes amid broader cultural and political efforts to erase references to gender identity. Just weeks ago, Iowa became the first state to eliminate “gender identity” from its civil rights protections. At the federal level, the Trump administration has moved to eliminate mentions of gender identity in agency communications. Project 2025, a sweeping conservative policy roadmap, calls for deleting the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from government and public discourse.

In GLAAD’s 2024 Social Media Safety Index, YouTube scored 58 out of 100. The platform was credited for launching a pronoun display option for creators but criticized for falling short in key areas. YouTube is the only major platform evaluated as lacking a clear policy protecting users — including public figures — from targeted misgendering and deadnaming. The company also provides little transparency on addressing wrongful demonetization, filtering, and removing LGBTQ content from ad services.

“YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety and content moderation,” a GLAAD spokesperson told User Mag. “Like Meta’s recent dangerous rollbacks of hate speech protections for transgender and nonbinary people, the removal of these specific words appears to be a responsive alignment with the anti-LGBTQ agenda of Project 2025.”