Ever since card companies and payment processors were urged to turn their collective eye of Sauron on Steam and Itch.io last month – resulting in the mass deindexing of adult games on the latter platform – a determined group of anti-censorship crusaders has been calling companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe day in and day out. This week, Stripe’s messaging around the topic seemed to change: Where before, reps had said the payment service does not support adult content, a few seem to have begun suggesting that LGBTQ content, adult or not, is also barred. Stripe has told Aftermath that those support team members were mistaken.
"We apologize: the information given by our support team was totally wrong,” a Stripe spokesperson said in a statement to Aftermath. “Stripe has no prohibitions on the sale of LGBTQ+ content or goods.”
Yesterday and today, a handful of Bluesky users reported receiving confusing or offputting responses from support staff when inquiring about LGBTQ content. These posts quickly accrued thousands of reposts.
"Twice today, when pressured, Stripe operators have said, plainly, that I cannot use Stripe for the purchase of LGBTQ content,” posted Dieselbrain, a former artist and active member of the call campaign who’s created resources to help others. “Not just adult content, but explicitly LGBTQ."
Speaking with Aftermath, they explained how their conversation with a Stripe support team member took that unexpected turn: “There was a bit of back and forth, and at some point I mention how it's not just [affecting] adult content, but also safe-for-work LGBT content. The operator then says that adult and LGBT content are not allowed to be purchased using Stripe. Hearing that surprises me, so I then ask more directly if I can use Stripe to purchase LGBT content. No mention of adult [content]; I'm just focusing on LGBT now. And the operator confirms that I cannot use Stripe to purchase LGBT content and then says something along the lines of this being Stripe's right to do so as a private business."
Today, Trans News Network’s Mady Castigan posted audio of a call that was particularly telling: A support team member, seemingly confused by a question about whether or not LGBTQ content is allowed, first suggests that Stripe does not allow LGBTQ content, but then steps away to double check. When she returns, she clarifies that “abusive behavior” is banned, “but there is not, like, a specific target for the LGBT."
Others have claimed that they wound up on calls with support team members who became exasperated upon hearing that people believed LGBTQ content was being specifically targeted.
"I wanna be clear about something," Dieselbrain posted today. "We don't know Stripe's actual policy. These were statements by tier 1 call reps. They are worrying statements, especially since multiple people have experienced them, but this is not the same thing as conclusive proof that Stripe has an anti-LGBT policy on the books. It's a Bad Look but not the same as confirmed policy."
In Stripe’s statement to Aftermath, the company spokesperson concluded: “We're looking into this and making sure future inquiries are answered correctly."
