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.
Yup. I don't feel comfortable using my one account where I am openly trans on any trans or queer non related communities because unfortunately transphobia is too rampant.
Damn, I though lemmy was more open to you folks and it's sad to see that I was simply missing what's going on. :(
I hear this a lot and I wonder how Lemmy or even the Fediverse as a whole got that status?
I don’t see anything that would make the Fediverse a safer place, except for the fact that the software itself, allows for the creation of closed communities.
As soon as you open up your community to the rest of the Fediverse though, you are at the mercy of the rest of the internet, that unfortunately includes assholes.
Now, as a Lemmy administrator myself, I can fortunately say that I haven’t experienced any transphobia from my users or have transphobia reported by my users. But do note that I am only talking about actual reports made by users. If it hasn’t been reported, I am not aware of it.
As a mod i see more things than most people do
Like I know that what you and your community goes through is just as bad as any other oppression in the world, but at the same time it is kind of funny that transphobes are so afraid of you because they might want to have sex with you.
It's the craziest shit, and if it weren't so dangerous and sad and fucked up it would be so empowering.
i definitely wouldn't say that's the primary motivation behind transphobes' reasoning. In my expierence it's the upsetting of an entire worldview they were raised in and what they were taught as the truth their whole lives being false. Hell, just even being unable to cope with nuance and gray areas in the natural world.
That is a good point that I hadn't considered.
I'm sorry to hear that, genuinely. I hope we can build a more inclusive environment going forward.
Sorry to hear indeed 😔
It's unfortunate that it must be like that, people like us should be able to feel safe being who we are and not have to hide and pretend to me something we aren't. That's why it's so important that this problem be dealt with on a large scale, by instance admins across the fediverse.