LGBT Tech Testifies in California Assembly Privacy & Consumer Protection Committee

Thursday, May 14, 2026 — Yesterday, LGBT Tech’s Director of Policy and Research, Shae Gardner, testified in the California Assembly Privacy & Consumer Protection Committee’s informational hearing entitled, “The Impact of Social Media on LGBTQ+ Youth: Benefits, Risks, and Safeguards.”

During LGBT Tech’s testimony, Shae sought to educate lawmakers on the issues that the LGBTQ+ community faces both online and offline, and that certain policies – however well-intentioned – may do more harm than good. In opening remarks, we acknowledge that “online platforms can and do expose young people to serious harms.” LGBT Tech is all too aware that LGBTQ+ youth experience “harassment, misinformation, doxxing,” and other significant online harms at “disproportionate rates.” However, our testimony urged the committee that “acknowledging [those issues] is not the same thing as accepting exclusion as the solution.”

In today’s tech policy environment, many lawmakers are presenting a binary choice: accepting today’s platform environment or cutting young people off from social media. LGBT Tech firmly believes there is a broad middle ground of serious and access-preserving safeguards. Ones that protect all internet users, especially youth and other vulnerable communities, while enabling community building, self-exploration, finding support, and access to positive representation.

The things LGBTQ+ individuals seek out and find online are not unique concepts to our community. People of all experiences can find support for issues such as grief or medical hardships. Others may look for mental health representation or educational information.

“If the remedy [to online harms] is to deny account-based access, the policy has moved beyond safety standards into exclusion."

When people are excluded from connection or an online community, that does not mean they stop searching. It just means they will look for that in less moderated or visible places. Or they will be less likely to report harassment or predatory contact because doing so acknowledges they’ve broken the rules. It puts already vulnerable or marginalized groups in even tougher situations.

LGBT Tech left the committee with two key takeaways:

1. Our digital policy cannot be divorced from the broader political environment we are living in. In a charged political environment where the LGBTQ+ community is being singled out, targeted, excluded, and erased, people are feeling safer online, which means preserving digital access is more important than ever before.

2. California’s choices matter beyond California. California is largely seen as a leader in shaping policy around the country, and even globally. In a state that prides itself on its inclusivity and commitments to the LGBTQ+ community, it cannot become the state that recognized LGBTQ+ youth were facing rising hostility everywhere and responded by narrowing one of the few pathways they still had to support online.

Watch the full hearing here.