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.
Most instances I have seen, including this one, has strong rules around hate speech. Maybe I’m lucky since I don’t interact with
lemmy.world, but I only saw transphobic rhetoric twice since I joined Lemmy more than a year ago.Make sure to always report it. Never assume someone else already did.
I won’t say it doesn’t exist on .world but I haven’t noticed any. That being said I’m also not sensitive to it so I could be seeing it and not recognizing it.
Another tip: Don’t be like @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone and insult people by falsely accusing them of supporting hate speech.
I have a lot of respect for her for trying to create a safe environment for the trans community, but not allowing respectful discussions even if you disagree with the argument made is not helpful. Kind of opposite of inclusive behavior.
I have learned that there is a toooon of variance in things you’ll see here. It’s a little nutty, but also interesting.
