[OutVoice] Thanks to all - Yahoo agrees - Gay Guitarists not an "adult" group

[themusenyc at aol.com]

Congrats Robert on getting Yahoo to clean up its act!
Hugs,
Len
Founder
StoneWall Society
www.stonewallsociety.com
www.stonewallsociety.net




Hey gang- 


Regarding GAY GUITARISTS WORLDWIDE successfully getting Yahoo to return our group's category
from "adult" to "music":


I want to thank everyone for all the emails of support I received during the drama - No one thought
the battle could be won - but we won it.


Way back when I started GGW, I knew the day might come when some yahoo troublemaker would try to
censor us with the dirty trick of equating "lgbt" with "adult". This unfair labeling, with its scarlet letter "over 18 only - adult content" warning, 
has been the undoing of many yahoo LGBT groups in the past.


I also knew that when I protested to Yahoo - that they would immediately examine the entire GGW group site (photos, files, links, etc)
including the entire 6 year long archive of member posts - in search of anything with "adult" content - with which to catch us . 


This is why, over the years, I strove to keep the focus of our group music-related, instrument-related or otherwise related to the LGBT music/arts/culture/political community. This is why I would always delete links to any "adult" sites, etc.


And examine us they did! But they could find nothing that merited us being labelled "adult" over "music". 
To Yahoo's credit, they have come a long way. I notice, more and more in the Yahoo news section,  nearly every day's headline news includes
at least one piece of interest the the LGBT community. And now they (along with the world...) are coming to learn that "LGBT-related"
does not necessarily mean "adult-related". They did the right thing.
luv - RU


_______________________________________________
 Musician/producer Robert Urban here. i am the 
founder/moderator of GAYGUITARISTS YAHOO GROUP.  Somehow my yahoo group
category has suddenly been changed to "adult" status. It is a 
"music" group. It has been a music category since i founded it
over 6 years ago. I have NEVER allowed any "adult" posts of 
any kind. You can see for yourself in the messages history, and in the 
photos or links section. The group is  for LGBT and LGBT-friendly 
professional instrumental musicians. Just as there are lgbt people of 
all ages there are lgbt musicians of all ages. I want to know 
specifically WHY it was changed to adult. To assume that just because 
the group serves the lgbt music-arts community - that it therefore 
contains "adult" material - is false and defamatory. There are
now legal high schools for lgbt youth as well as lgbt student clubs & 
groups within the U.S. public school system. PLEASE CHANGE MY GROUP 
CATEGORY BACK TO MUSIC.  Lgbt musicians, just like lgbt people - face 
discrimination and bullying all over the internet. My group offers 
serious lgbt musical artists a safe arts forum where together we can 
share and discuss music without fear. The "over 18" warning message is as unnecessary as it is insulting.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

robert urban
URBAN PRODUCTIONS, NYC
www.roberturban.com
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