by Fred Kuhr

If you want to get an issue of your publication censored on Issuu, the digital publication platform used by many LGBTQ newspapers, just mention “grooming.”

No, not the eyebrows-on-fleek kind of grooming. The kind of “grooming” that right-wing activists like to talk about in order to target LGBTQ people and, frankly, anyone else they disagree with. President Joe Biden has been called a groomer. Donald Trump has called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a groomer. “Groomer” is the new “pedophile.”

If you want to get an issue of your publication censored on Issuu, the digital publication platform used by many LGBTQ newspapers, just mention “grooming.”

This has become such a hot-button in Florida that South Florida Gay News (SFGN), based in Wilton Manors, published a “Special Grooming Issue” on February 23, 2023. The issue includes articles entitled, “What is ‘grooming’?: The truth behind the dangerous, bigoted lie targeting the LGBT community,” and “Trump flips the script; Blasts DeSantis as a ‘groomer’: DeSantis’ allies in turn call Trump a ‘groomer.’”

To bring attention to the topic, the issue’s front cover features a full-page photo of DeSantis shaking hands with schoolchildren with the headline “Ron De-Groomer?: Everything you never wanted to know about the right-wing’s latest attack on the LGBT community.”

It’s an important topic, especially since it is a now-popular epithet being hurled at the LGBTQ community in order to score political points.

For Issuu, however, it violates community standards. And this one issue of SFGN has been censored on the platform.

“SFGN’s cover … of Gov. Ron DeSantis being mocked as ‘Ron De-Groomer’ was censored on Issuu, a platform that SFGN, and many other companies use, to upload their print editions online,” SFGN reported.

SFGN called its cover “a tongue-in-cheek visual featuring a photo of DeSantis staring at, and touching, school-age children.”

Issuu, however, has removed the online version from public viewing and is now only available to readers via a direct link. In other words, the issue is missing from the newspaper’s gallery on the platform.

But even when using the direct link supplied by SFGN (https://issuu.com/sfgnissues/docs/sfgn_02-23-23-finalsmall), Issuu is forcing readers to login to prove that they are over 18.

“This publication may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by Issuu’s user community,” the platform states when trying to access the issue. “To view this publication please verify that you are 18 or older by signing in or signing up.”

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Volume 25
Issue 1