I had posted a draft version of this here last week with a different title; this is the revised and expanded version. Thanks everybody for the feedback, and thanks to We Distribute for pubishing the revised version. Most of all, thanks to all the trans, queer, and nonbinary people who have helped build the #fediverse and are shaping its future. Happy Pride!

Here’s a brief excerpt …

"way back, at the beginning of mastodon’s rise to what it is now, queer activists, be they just a stranger with a keyboard, new to the social media site, weighing in on a topic on the public timeline, or me, someone actively attempting to be the middle between the most vocal voices, and tangible, meaningful change through gargron’s code, and github focused writing and activity, people were queer. they were marginalized, to some extent. people who weren’t comfortable with the status quo, so we changed it.”

– hoodieaidakitten, Mastodon’s Complicated Relationship with Queer Activism, July 2018

Ever since Mastodon started in 2016, queer, trans and non-binary people have helped build it and the interconnected web of decentralized social networks known as the “fediverse.” Today there are dozens or even hundreds of LGBTQ-focused instances, and even many of the instances that aren’t specifically for the community are welcoming. Which is good!

People telling the Mastodon origin story usually acknowledges the queer influence… Still, very few people I talk to know realize how extensive queer contributions have been – and how much tension there’s been around them. Mastodon: a partial history has a lot of quotes and links to first-person experiences, but they’re scattered throughout it – and it ends in late 2022. So to celebrate Pride, I figured I’d expand on that and also highlight a few of many areas where the impact continues today.