Last year's documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated underscored the double standard that films with LGBT content receive when they are rated by the MPAA. Films with queer content are much more likely to receive an R rating than those with heterosexual content or with significant amounts of violence. This double standard has now crossed into the brave new world of cyberspace, specifically YouTube.

Two years ago, YouTube didn't exist. Today, it is a daily habit for millions of people around the globe, and it is the fastest growing repository for almost any moment, significant or otherwise, captured on tape. Given the paltry presence of lesbians and gays on network television, YouTube's growing influence is of special significance to LGBT people who are anxious to find reflections of their lives in mainstream media.

Hankering to see the final scene from the notorious story of doomed love in The Children's Hour? Want to revisit the sitcom moment when Ellen DeGeneres declares she's gay into an open mic at an airport? Look no further than YouTube, a virtual smorgasbord of lesbian moments.

Despite being a great resource for LGBT viewers, YouTube also offers these users constant reminders that lesbians and gays are not an entirely accepted part of American society, thanks to a feature known as “flagging.” As YouTube guidelines explain, “ Some of the content here may offend you — if you find that it violates our Terms of Use, then click ‘Flag as Inappropriate' under the video you're watching to submit it for review by YouTube staff.”

What this translates to in the anonymous world of the internet is that anybody who sees a video he or she doesn't like can “flag it” for inappropriate content. The offending clip then goes into a queue and is eventually reviewed by a YouTube staff member who makes the determination whether the video should be pulled off the site entirely, whether it should remain flagged because it contains “inappropriate content,” or whether the “flag” itself should be removed.

Users who wish to view a flagged video receive the following warning: “This video may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community. By clicking ‘Confirm,' you are agreeing that all videos flagged by the YouTube community will be viewable by this account.”

No one is quibbling with the notion that clips that are clearly pornographic or depict graphic violence should be flagged or even removed. The problem lies with clips being flagged simply because they contain “lesbian” content — content merely depicting lesbians just being lesbians. A happy scene of two lesbian characters dreaming about raising a child and discovering they are pregnant from If These Walls Could Talk 2 is flagged, but a mildly sexy, heterosexual kiss from the film The Notebook is not.

A promo for South of Nowhere in which Ashley and Spencer almost kiss is flagged, while a near-kiss between two heterosexual characters in The O.C. is not. A search for “lesbians,” “lesbian film” or “lesbian kiss” on YouTube will undoubtedly return a flagged clip in no time.

The repeated flagging of LGBT content regardless of its level of sexual explicitness, and YouTube's tolerance of this flagging, suggests a clear bias. However, YouTube denied AfterEllen.com's repeated requests for an interview on this subject.

YouTube's marketing manager, Jenny Nielson, did provide a brief written statement in response to our queries. With regard to abusive flagging, she wrote: “The fact is we don't control the content on our site. Our community decides what content rises up, and also flags content that is inappropriate. Once the content is flagged, we review the video and remove it if it violates our terms of use.” Nielson did not comment on the videos that remain on the site while flagged as inappropriate.