New York (CNN Business) YouTube and its parent company Google (GOOG) are being sued by several LGBTQ social media stars, who allege the company discriminated against them when it restricted their content from making money and limited its distribution.

The lawsuit, filed late Tuesday in a federal court in California, claims LGBTQ users are being subjected to "unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBTQ+ Plaintiffs and the greater LGBTQ+ Community."

Creators can earn money directly from the ads running on their videos but in recent years, some LGBTQ people have expressed concern about their videos being cut off from earning ad revenue and becoming age restricted. When a video is age restricted , it won't be seen by users under 18 and creators can't make money from it. Those videos also can be harder for new viewers to find.

Alex Joseph, a spokesperson for YouTube, told CNN Business in a statement that all content on its site is subject to the same policies.

"Our policies have no notion of sexual orientation or gender identity and our systems do not restrict or demonetize videos based on these factors or the inclusion of terms like 'gay' or 'transgender,'" he said.

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