When I recently accessed my Orkut profile, I came across the following sentence: “Your profile was analyzed and we found that it contains inappropriate content.”
I saw and reviewed my communities countless times, my photos, my messages, my testimonials and my description. There was nothing inappropriate there, other than my sexual orientation.
When considered “inappropriate”, my photo was hidden from friends' profiles and, when they tried to access my page, they received a message alerting them to the inappropriate content on my profile, in addition to having it hidden from searches on the site.
I felt outraged, insulted and embarrassed. Every day I have to put up with jokes like: “What have you been doing wrong, huh?” or “you pervert!” and seeing friends leave my network because they feel uncomfortable having someone “inappropriate” on their profile.
I looked at communities and other profiles considered inappropriate and there was nothing there that could be considered inappropriate.
Now, if I have to be of legal age to participate in the site, what's the problem with making my sexual orientation explicit? And, since when was being homosexual “inappropriate”? In fact, inappropriate for who? For homophobes? Can be.
The question then remains: who created this filter? Based on what criteria?
I see in this restraint my primordial right to exercise my sexuality taken away and my dignity violated.
I'm not ashamed of being homosexual, I'm not afraid of being who I am, but, for Orkut, my pride is inappropriate, my transparency is inadequate and my orientation is subject to categorization.
If you also had your profile considered “inappropriate” and felt insulted by this classification, leave your message in this article and use your real email in the fields below (don't worry, it is only visible to the site administration). Let's join forces and demand that Orkut remove this filter. No more oppression, no more veiled homophobia, no more having our right to be homosexual vetoed by society.
