Miles McKenna Got Misgendered in a Space That Was Supposed to Be Safe

The growing complexity of VidCon is becoming a problem.

At AT&T’s Turn Up the Love festival, co-sponsored by the LOVELOUD foundation. Courtesy of Miles McKenna.

If you’re even mildly interested by what happens on YouTube and how the platform has come to shape an entire era of pop culture that found its home in niches and extreme ubiquity at the same time, you would’ve been alert that VidCon happened over the last week. It sparked yet again a conversation about the good or bad of our collective relationship with the platform, and what ways could increased access to industry know-how, make creators more aware of the challenges they have ahead as YouTube constantly shifts shape and form. What happened over the last few days though, lived on the periphery of these conversations, and it highlighted an important dimension of LGBT+ activism very few in the industry seem to be privy to.

VidCon prides itself on a tradition of including all creators no matter their size or specialty. Whether that’s mostly a performance, or a genuine concern on the organizers’ behalf is nigh-impossible to judge; but however, an incident stretching over the last few days over the mistreatment of a creator raises once again a common concern among the LGBT+ community that their issues are always a comfortable cushion to fallback on when questions of inclusion are raised, rather than a blueprint by…