1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I'm submitting a comment to oppose the FCC's public notice under MB Docket No. 19-41, which seeks to change how programs featuring transgender and nonbinary characters are rated. This is government censorship disguised as parental guidance. I ask that you also encourage your constituents to submit public comments opposing this overreach at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/docket-detail/19-41. Transgender and nonbinary people exist. Depicting their existence in children's programming is not controversial, obscene, or inappropriate. GLAAD's most recent report found just one transgender character on all of broadcast television. The problem isn't too much representation—it's that there's barely any to begin with. This initiative will erase what little exists. The FCC has no regulatory authority over streaming platforms, yet this notice explicitly targets them. Chairman Carr has already demonstrated his willingness to use legally dubious threats to pressure networks into self-censorship, threatening ABC's broadcast licenses over Jimmy Kimmel and causing Disney to pull him off the air. When the FCC pressures broadcast licenses, parent companies censor their streaming platforms too. Disney already removed a transgender storyline from Pixar's Win or Lose before it aired using the exact "parents should discuss in their own time" framing this notice employs. The current rating system works. Parents who want to restrict content already have tools to do so. This is about erasing LGBTQ+ people from television, not protecting children. Reject this effort and mobilize public opposition.