Transphobia in the fediverse
Transphobia in the fediverse
I’ve only been on Lemmy a few days and I’ve already witnessed a lot of thinly veiled transphobia, anything from people dismissing the existence of trans people, to trying to claim we are predators. I’ve also seen people downvoted in the general communities for expressing trans support, or seemingly ...
cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/12273255
I've only been on Lemmy a few days and I've already witnessed a lot of thinly veiled transphobia, anything from people dismissing the existence of trans people, to trying to claim we are predators. I've also seen people downvoted in the general communities for expressing trans support, or seemingly for no reason other than simply being openly trans or visibly queer. I know it's an ongoing effort to moderate transphobia on Lemmy, and the fediverse as a whole. We have to also address mentions of thinly veiled transphobia and transphobic users. Transphobia isn't just a differing opinion, it is a dangerous hateful sentiment which causes harm to vulnerable people and it needs to be addressed, at the instance and community level. We need to put in the effort to identify transphobic dogwhistles and language used by transphobes to eradicate this type of behavior from our communities and servers alike.
Some people will argue that the light stuff isn't something to worry about, but that's not true. This is a tactic they use to blend in with normies and make them think that nothing they are doing or saying is wrong. It's what transphobic right-wing YouTubers and Facebook users do to avoid being banned for hate speech. We are better than these corporations though, Fediverse is run by communities and for the users, we should not let these things slide as easily as Corporations do, they're in it to make money, we... We're in it to create a community for the users. Part of that means kicking out those who don't have all our best interests at heart.
obviously i can't speak for my trans comrades on hexbear, but from what I can tell it is genuinely the most trans friendly place on the internet. it has gone through more than one purge of even subtle transphobes, and it's one of the few places where both cis and trans people can join in harmony on bullying cis people. Additionally, the mods are extremely quick to ban any new transphobes who wander in. all this to say if the transphobia of the rest of the lemmyverse ever gets to be too much even if you aren't a full on socialist the trans comms on hexbear can still make an account there worth it for anyone who needs a respite from it all
Hexbear is easily the most trans-positive instance, and it isn't close. Strictly anti-chaser, pro-trans, there's even a cis/trans questionaire that shows trans and trans-questioning members outnumber cis members when put together.
Lemmy.ml's trans community has fantastic mods, but unfortunately Lemmy.ml itself isn't as protective of its trans users. I try to report transphobia when I see it, but I see a lot more transphobia on Lemmy.ml than I do on Hexbear.net, which is a symptom more of the userbase than the mods IMO.
I'm sorry you've had to experience that transphobia on Lemmy. It is unfortunately common. And sometimes it even lurks as internalized transphobia in people that do not think of themselves as transphobjc. For example, there are Lemmy instances that actually promote chasers.
I believe all instances if transphobia should be called out and obvious examples should result in bans. Sometimes it is good to let people have a chance to accept criticism and retract but I am biased towards more often banning. Comments that are transphobic should also be removed.
The fediverse isn’t one thing and lemmy in particular is censorship proof, meaning there isn’t much you can do besides tailoring your own experience and filtering the feed to suit you. My instance doesn’t federate with lemmy.world or lemmy.ca because they are not well run instances without any oversight to their users and it’s mostly spam. My instance also fully disables downvotes because they are all spam as well.
I read a post earlier tonight from tumbler that made me uncomfortably aware that I am naive when it comes to dog whistles and other subtleties people use to spread their hate. It laid out examples of things people are saying, and explained why they’re bad.
I know I would find it helpful and educational to know where you’re coming from, and to see the examples you’re speaking about.
Fuck off with your cohorts. You're not even fighting for equal rights anymore, you clearly all want the spotlight and thrive from the attention like whores.
On top of that you're all buddy-buddy with the mods, it's like crying to your parents every time you have an issue. Clearly shows what kind of weak-willed brigade you are.
Bet you'll go cry to your mod buddies and get this and any other disagreeing opinion removed.
How. Fucking. Typical.
Cowards.
Real LGBT community members wouldn't differentiate between themselves and other groups, since the goal is inclusiveness. You're all about division.
So fuck right off with your fake reality TV star movement.
Welcome. There's a lot of shit here. It's like the early days of the Internet. The early days of reddit. Little bit of everything. Grow a thick skin if stuff offends you, or find your safe spots. There are as many great places and people as there are bad. And there are sheltered safe spots if that's what you're looking for.
You are extremely self centered in how you see the world. There are as many people in the world and in the fediverse that would say kick you out because you don't have their best interests at heart. We can argue right and wrong all you want but that's not the point, especially since it sounds like you don't want to do any arguing. That's how a lot of folks feel, and they are here too.
There are also plenty of trolls and foreign bad actors. We've really got it all already.