Transphobia in the fediverse - Discuss Online
discuss.online
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.

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.

  • OurToothbrush
    2·
    3 months ago

    Honestly this is a really uncharitable reading of what I’m saying.

    If someone ostensibly left-wing or socialist needs to read theory in order value my life and needs as a proletarian ally then they can necessarily be no ally of mine. More work needs to be done beyond tacit academic acceptance.

    Except here it seems the guy does oppose transphobia generally but needs specific work done to advance his understanding of the issue.

    And understanding social practice in other places to improve your own social practice isn’t academic. It is not an ivory-tower-ass thing.

    What other minority has to be vetted for their use before being welcomed into your so-called revolutionary project?

    Socialist projects are doing better on lgbt issues because they are recognizing the old bigotry against lgbt people for what it is.

    LGBT people aren’t being used, except in the sense that discarding liberal bigotries in general helps make the system more robust.

    I’m literally a trans person btw, I am approaching this from an angle of actually helping people remove their own bigotries. What is your solution here? What should dessalines do to get better on trans issues, concretely? If you’re having a hard time articulating your criticism, I would suggest the constructive criticism handbook.

    • araneae@beehaw.org
      2·
      3 months ago

      I don’t really know the drama around this guy except The Screenshot everybody posts so I’m not going to act as if I care about his personal opinions, but I don’t like what I see as hypocrisy. There can be no allyship with someone who understands our experience purely through the lens of political opportunism. Empathy is the real prerequisite for decency here. There is a lot of talk on this guy and whether he updated his stance after that screenshot but I don’t think it matters unless he signals himself a understanding of lgbt people as human fools trapped in the same exploitation he is. And hell I don’t know, maybe he wrote that post awhile ago, and if he did good for him. But it rather seems like he lets people speak for him on this issue.

      • OurToothbrush
        2·
        3 months ago

        There can be no allyship with someone who understands our experience purely through the lens of political opportunism.

        Do you think all pro-lgbt measures done in socialist states to be about political opportunism? Because in Cuba it took a multi-decade effort while struggling against the influence of the catholic church and colonial-legacy machismo culture to expand lgbt rights to the point that they’re better than the US

        • araneae@beehaw.org
          21·
          3 months ago

          I think this is a community organiser and not a faceless national government. Making lgbt policy and learning in your personal life to be better aren’t the same thing. Not dissimilar to when right wingers call something “political.”

          One would think class struggle would be the first thing socialists would appeal to instead of a milquetoast attempts to reassure people “its okay, the Revolutionary Cause are slowly learning to view you as people!”

          Man is a person. He answers to a community. He’s not actually a party official of the revolutionary guard and you and I are allowed to demand better. The way I wrote the last post gave you ample opportunity clap back at me with proof from Dessines that he felt differently, which I honestly expect exists somewhere at least as damage control. But instead we are arguing the semantics over whether a man should take responsibilty for his own bigotry or whether the entire global leftist project should bear that burden for him. I’d rather be slurred to my face than have people bullshit me we’re on the same side while talking about us like we’re props; if only the right ideological mutant strain of intersectional communism that you personally advocate for as being inevitable were to triumph, then the callous way we’re discussed will have been justified. You’re sharing the table with a bigot, or at least you’re leaving a chair open with this rhetoric of pragmatic “usefulness to the cause”. I am happy to be proven wrong (for the sake of .ml’s community) but even if I am this line of reasoning you employ just does not work.

          • OurToothbrush
            1·
            3 months ago

            But instead we are arguing the semantics over whether a man should take responsibilty for his own bigotry or whether the entire global leftist project should bear that burden for him.

            I’m not having that argument? I am sort of confused as to why you think I’m making that argument?

            I think you’re continuing to read me as appealing to pragmatism when I am instead appealing to learning from people who he respects on why he is personally wrong on the issue.

            I would once again ask you, what specifically do you want to happen? If you’re having a hard time articulating it, I would suggest looking at the constructive criticism handbook. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-3/constructive-criticism.html?ref=redstarcaucus.org

            Man is a person. He answers to a community. He’s not actually a party official of the revolutionary guard and you and I are allowed to demand better.

            Demand better from him than providing free gender affirming care and legalizing gay marriage, affirming other alt family structures, proactively having a country do pro-lgbt education to root out cultural bigotry like in Cuba? I’m am somewhat confused by this statement? What does demanding better here look like?

            • araneae@beehaw.org
              2·
              3 months ago

              I really feel like you’re forgetting this

              I think the guy’s heart is in the right place though, I think he just hasn’t done the legwork yet on studying how modern socialist states are moving on lgbt issues and why they’re doing so.

              is how you defend that above screenshot people are pointed out. I don’t understand how you can’t see the contradiction implicit. A person’s heart can’t be in the right place if they say things like what was said in the original comment. It occurs to me on reread maybe I don’t understand it? It’s a bit ambiguously worded. But it has popped up before in these conversations and its cited whenever l.ml users reach out to the other big gay instances.

              We should accept each other not based on “how modern socialist states are moving”. That phrase “doing the leg work” is doing a lot of leg work being nonspecific about what someone is actually learning and internalizing.

              Its just uncomfortable to be in a supposedly welcoming space where allyship arises from first principles and not from real empathy. Its not a college class you can study for.