something I believe

Gratuitous, by definition, means w/o "apparent cause, reason or justification." Graphic sex and violence are not in and of themselves gratuitous sex and violence. If a publication's guidelines say 'no gratuitous sex or violence,' this should not mean said publication automatically rejects any graphically violent or sexual content. If said publication is going to reject work based primarily on sexual or violent content (as opposed to other considerations, of which there clearly many), they should do so only if the sex and violence are genuinely w/o purpose, intended primarily to shock and exploit.

If a publication's policy is in fact to automatically reject all graphic sexual and violent content, then this is how their guidelines should read, and they should exclude the qualifier "gratuitous."