OTW elections are coming up and if you've donated $10 in the last year, you'll be receiving a ballot in August. Audrey Richards is a member of the GOP, which has time and time again found ways of destroying queer spaces. Audrey herself might argue that she is an outlier in her party in terms of queer acceptance, but today's GOP is a toxic, pulsating mass of hate, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism and sexism. If you're willing to stand next to those people, don't be surprised when you're painted with the same brush.

If someone comes to a predominantly QUEER space (like AO3) and tells you that censorship is necessary to eradicate CSAM... it's not actually CSAM they want to eradicate...

I've seen this type of discourse about Pride and about queer literature and queer movies and queer communities. It's a tried and true technique of the right and conservative movements.

First, they say there is a DANGER to the community through CSAM and they conflate the actual threat of CSAM in the community (we all know someone who thinks that writing a love story between two characters who are 16 is CSAM...), and make you believe that censorship is the only way to PROTECT THE CHILDREN. And since most people are (rightly) mind-bogled at having to explain that of course they don't support CSAM content, they bow down and accept the censorship for the greater good, without anyone actually trying to have a conversation about what qualifies as CSAM (which needs to, you know, actually involve real children and not fictional characters who are 17 and losing their virginity with their crush in a Mature-rated story about high school football and first love based on the author's own experience of losing their virginity at 17 to their crush in high school).

Then, they tell you that there are other forms of DISTURBING CONTENT, and what they really mean is porn that THEY find disturbing, for ex, (and I kid you not, I have seen comments like that) porn featuring disabled characters, which they consider to encourage the exploitation of vulnerable individuals, or BDSM porn (which supposedly encourages violence and lack of consent), or rough porn, or any kind of porn that isn't two (preferably white and skinny) able-bodied people doing it missionary style while lovingly gazing in each other's eyes. SO TO PROTECT VIEWERS, that needs to be banned as well.

And then, they tell you that even that sanitized version of porn is still porn and that people under 18 or under 21 or under whatever age they consider too young to view anything sexual regardless of the fact that not all countries have the same law about the age of maturity, should be free to surf the site without having to *gasp* filter out properly tagged works. So TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN, every explicit content is censored.

And then finally, when all that is left is a sanitized, white-washed, ableist, puritan type of content featuring General-Audience approved gay works of two nice men or two nice women holding hands and chastely kissing each other on the lips... Well guess what? :) CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE EXPOSED TO QUEER CONTENT SO WE NEED TO BAN THAT AS WELL, and since we've basically done purge after purge before and there are still a handful of people on the website, well surely they won't mind/care anymore, will they?

It's not just a slippery slope, it's something that has been done time and again, and that is why censorship on AO3 will never, never have a positive outcome.

Erica Frank and Rachel Linton (in alphabetical order) have been elected to OTW Board. Read more at: https://otw-news.org/55mnsnkm

We don't want another wattpad. Or fanfiction.net. Ao3 is great because it does not censor creations or allow harassment of creators.

I'm sure you can imagine how someone like this gaining a position of power in a queer-friendly space is going to go.

Tell me, what is the number one false flag that republicans hide behind when pushing agendas that are designed to target and oppress LGBTQ+ people and minorities? tHiNk oF tHe cHiLdReN!

The above is their policy lead, which screams pro-censorship and anti-kink.

She answered the OTW Q and A's like any republican who is hiding pro-censorship and evangelical agendas would.

And how many republican candidates have you seen do a complete 180 and go back on their promises to NOT target and oppress minorities and the most vulnerable groups?

Pretty much fucking ALL of them.

Guys, we cannot let her get into our safe space. The archive is one of the last frontiers we have where we are not monetized by corporations, and we can be safely queer and create without judgement.

If Audrey gets in, we can kiss it all goodbye.

Chinese readers like myself are also desperately calling for the vote now on our own social media(weibo and qzone), what Tiffany G says doesn’t stand for Chinese Fangirls.

We are actually more concerned and scared than ever for if she won she might giveaway Chinese AO3 writers’ personal data to certain people and lead to horrible things in the real life. 

SHE IS WORKING IN A GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION.

Please vote for the future of AO3 and the freedom and safety of Chinese writers. And please don’t take Tiffany as a average Chinese fangirl, don’t attack us in a dark time like this.

我们都是一样的人，我们不想成为孤岛。