i'm not responding to anyone in particular but responding in general to the discourse i've seen take place here today. i personally think that we, as adult creators & consumers of lgbtq work, have a certain responsibility to each other & (perhaps more importantly) to lgbtq youth.

yes, TWs & tags exist for a reason and there is a certain responsibility individuals have to heed warnings & protect themselves by avoiding content that may hurt them. these are very easy blanket statements to make & agree with; but negate that certain issues warrant more nuance.

these issues include (but are not limited to) creative work written by adults which 1) romanticizes abuse of any kind, 2) uses homophobia or violence against any other marginalized group for shock value without explicit denouncement, & 3) depictions of underage explicit content.

let me be clear: i am not saying that people who produce or consume such content are inherently bad, or that they don't have their own complicated histories w these topics, or that they deserve bad things to happen to them. i am NOT promoting doxxing, threats, or suicide baiting.

i personally used to read a lot of content that i now denounce because i was young and impressionable. this is where my claims about responsibility re: protecting lgbtq youth come in. we can tag our work all we want, but that does not stop people (especially youth) from looking.

maybe you write/draw abuse or assault bc you have experienced those things, and you are coping. THAT IS VALID. what is NOT valid is publishing such content in a public forum where impressionable lgbtq youth can access & interact with it. censorship is bad. accountability is not.

you can tell me that "kids shouldn't be on ao3", or "i told minors not to interact", but it doesn't MATTER. we were all young once, we've all done stupid shit we weren't supposed to. the fic i read as a teen normalized abuse in a way that allowed me to excuse it in my own life.

part of my beef with "write what you want so long as it's tagged" is that it's dismissive of the reality of trauma. many survivors engage with content they KNOW will hurt them compulsively. you can say that's on them, but shouldn't it be on all of us to protect one another?

even more importantly however, my largest issue with this is (once again) that lgbtq youth are particularly vulnerable. as adults in spaces inevitably populated by these youth, we. have. a. responsibility. to. protect. them. from. harm. i will not stand down from this statement.

if this thread loses me followers, then so be it. i'm not here to denounce anyone, or to gossip, or to draw lines in the sand. what i'm here to say is this: cope with what you will how you must. write & draw what you want. but as humans, as adults, as lgbtq individuals. listen:

we must all engage in self-reflection & hold ourselves accountable. your coping mechanisms & preferences are valid for you but they do not exist within a vacuum & even fiction has the power to do significant real-life harm, especially to youth. consider the impact you might have.