| Momentum is building behind a bill that would reshape how young people experience the internet, even as it faces renewed opposition from some LGBTQ+ groups who say it could lead to censorship of marginalized groups. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) reintroduced in May, would require online platforms to take steps to protect young users from various online dangers, including sexual exploitation and social media addiction. It passed the Senate last year on a 91-3 vote but stalled in the House, whose Republican leaders didn’t bring it to the floor. Now it stands to be the flagship in a bipartisan push to pass online safety laws this term under President Donald Trump — if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) buys in. But it also requires keeping at least some Democrats on board in the face of growing concerns on the left. The conflict over the proposal is heating up, with parents of child victims rallying for it on Capitol Hill on Monday as LGBTQ+ activists revive their opposition. In a letter shared with the Tech Brief ahead of its publication Tuesday, more than 2,000 LGBTQ+ activists told lawmakers that any of them who support the bill should “stay home” from Pride events this month. “The Kids Online Safety Act would give the Trump administration the ability to censor LGBTQ+ content online simply by claiming it can harm children by making them ‘anxious’ or ‘depressed,’” says the letter, which was organized by the digital rights nonprofit Fight for the Future. “It’s painful to see politicians and so-called civil society allies show up at Pride every year saying they support our community, then return to Washington and support harmful legislation in an effort to score political points with the very people who are hell-bent on erasing us from public life,” it adds. The letter comes a day after about 100 people turned out to Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill for what they characterized as a public memorial for kids who have been lost to harms related to social media. The event was organized by the child-safety advocacy group Heat Initiative, and speakers included Blackburn and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Florida), who chairs the House subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing and trade. They were joined in the sweltering June air by the bereaved family members of some 40 children who died after suffering serious harm online, such as sexual extortion, cyberbullying or enticements to drug use or eating disorders. “Innocent children have paid the tragic price for Big Tech’s shameless decision to put profits over the safety of young users,” Blackburn said in a statement. Amy Neville, the mother of a 14-year-old who died after buying fentanyl on Snapchat, said the children represented at Monday’s memorial are “just the tip of the iceberg” of those who have suffered from “social media’s dangerous and addictive product designs.” The opposition from LGBTQ+ groups is not new, but concerns over the Trump administration’s leadership of the Federal Trade Commission have intensified it. Among the signatories to the letter are “The Matrix” director Lilly Wachowski, the transgender activist and influencer Rose Montoya, and punk rock singer Kathleen Hanna of the groups Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. They cite past statements from Blackburn and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, that they say show some of the bill’s backers see it as a way to clamp down on content for children that relates to gender and sexual identity. And they say Trump’s Federal Trade Commission, which would be tasked with enforcing KOSA, can’t be trusted not to weaponize the law for ideological purposes. Trump flouted a long-standing Supreme Court ruling earlier this year by firing the commission’s two Democratic members, diminishing the agency’s independence. Fight for the Future director Evan Greer said the group believes a better way to keep kids safe online is through strong privacy laws, antitrust enforcement, and outright bans on exploitative social media features, rather than by holding platforms to what she views as KOSA’s nebulous “duty of care” standard. Now a leading LGBTQ+ rights organization says it, too, harbors fresh concerns about KOSA. After initially opposing KOSA, GLAAD changed its stance to neutral last year after lawmakers revised the bill in response to concerns from it and other rights groups. That seemed to have cleared the political path for Democratic lawmakers in particular to support it. Asked for comment on Monday, however, a spokesperson for GLAAD said the organization has changed its view again in light of “changes in FTC and other government leadership.” “When reviewing KOSA, lawmakers must now take recent, harmful and unprecedented actions from the FTC and other federal agencies against LGBTQ people and other historically marginalized groups into consideration,” said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD’s chief communications officer. | 
