Former YouTuber turned streamer Jerma985 has spoken out against transphobia and LGBT hate in his Twitch chat, explaining that new chat rules are coming to combat the issues.
It’s fair to say that Jerma985’s transition from YouTube to Twitch has been a largely successful one, with the 35-year-old American boasting just shy of 500,000 followers as of the time of writing.
However, recent streams have seen an increase in transphobic and abusive messages following Jerma vocalizing his support for the community.
“I support LGBT rights, full stop,” he said, in a recent stream. “That’s a full stop. Sometimes you look over and you see people very very upset about that. And I just gotta say I don’t wanna see any awful sh*t… There’s no reason at all to, if you see the trans pride emote, automatically stat to throw awful shit into this chat. Please for the love of god, don’t be such an a**hole.”
He also criticized viewers who defend their transphobia by claiming to oppose the ‘spamming’ of Pride flags in his chat, explaining that spam is not allowed, and not an excuse for LGBT hate.
Many viewers were quick to praise Jerma for his response to the issues, but it seems that the topic did not die down in his chat as the streamer added more information in a number of tweets.
“The hardest part about addressing potentially sensitive topics on stream, was the idea that now the chat will be a warzone,” he tweeted, on March 5. “My streams are, and have always been a place for us to just chill and have fun. I don’t strive to do anything else. I hope you guys all know that.”
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In a second tweet, he clarified the existing rules on bigotry and negativity in his chat, and confirmed that new rules will be coming in to try and combat the emergent issues.
The hardest part about addressing potentially sensitive topics on stream, was the idea that now the chat will be a warzone. My streams are, and have always been a place for us to just chill and have fun. I don’t strive to do anything else. I hope you guys all know that. 1/3
— Jerma (@Jerma985) March 5, 2021
Extreme negativity, no bigotry, and no racism are already in the rules, and I’m gonna have the mods act on it. There is no place for it here. Spam will be monitored, and there are some new chat rules going into place soon. I’ve been trying to get it right. 2/3
— Jerma (@Jerma985) March 5, 2021
Finally, he expressed his desire to keep his community as “diverse, talented and hilarious” as it is currently, just without the bigotry, transphobia and hate.
The channel has grown nearly 200-300% in the last year, and its something I am trying to handle the best I can. I think we have one of the most diverse, talented, fucking hilarious communities on twitch, it’s a really cool place, I wanna try and keep it that way. 3/3
— Jerma (@Jerma985) March 5, 2021
Many trans streamers have spoken to Dexerto about their experiences on Twitch, and highlighted the difficulties they face on the platform.
Jerma was rightfully praised for his advocacy and support of LGBT rights, but the issues he is experiencing show that there is still a long way to go until Twitch is not hampered by hate and transphobia.
