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.

  • Ada
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    71 hour ago

    This is why this explicitly trans protective instance does not allow downvotes and bans transphobe, even the “just asking questions” type, and the people that excuse it

    • @Blazingtransfem98OP
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      16 minutes ago

      Yeah, we need more instances to do this. People who undermine our right to exist represent an existential threat to our existence. No matter how innocuous it seems at first glance.

  • @socialpankakemix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    51 hour ago

    transphobia on the Internet? gasps

    no but really the best thing we can do is to stand up for ourselves and our community members and act in good faith, unfortunately even on lemmy there are massive divides in the trans community, but I know there are very many smart and wonderful individuals here that may convince fence sitters just by being who they are, so thanks yall

  • cowboycrustation [he/him]M
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    83 hours ago

    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.

        • bizarroland
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          22 hours ago

          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.

          • cowboycrustation [he/him]M
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            82 hours ago

            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.

    • @PugJesus@lemmy.world
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      43 hours ago

      I’m sorry to hear that, genuinely. I hope we can build a more inclusive environment going forward.

    • @Blazingtransfem98OP
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      54 hours ago

      I’m not sure how relevant that is, considering most of the accounts I’ve seen doing this are from lemmy.world, I’ve seen some doing it from .ml but most are from .world.

      • Zagorath
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        234 minutes ago

        considering most of the accounts I’ve seen doing this are from lemmy.world

        Ah, that explains (in part) why I haven’t seen very much of this myself. Their instance is failing to properly federate comments and votes, so I often don’t see comments from LW users unless I come across a post that’s a week old—or they reply to my own comments, in which case I see it a week later.

      • @pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        134 hours ago

        Nutomic is a core Lemmy developer. While their actual admin power is limited to .ml communities and users, their role in the development and future of Lemmy gives them legitimacy and undeserved importance on other instances.

        Even if you don’t believe that Nutomic’s status and personal attitude around trans individuals subtly influences the whole Lemmy community, consider that a large part of Lemmy rests on Nutomic’s goodwill and professionalism. For example, if a change to add pronouns to user pages is ever rejected, can you trust that it was for a legitimate reason when the people who have the final say are transphobic?

          • @Blazingtransfem98OP
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            226 minutes ago

            Folks this is what should happen in any decent Lemmy instance or community, someone posts transphobia apologia and the comment where they did it is removed. That is the bare minimum of what should happen. They should also ideally be banned from the community. This is an example of communities doing what is necessary to protect minority groups, as well as not letting their communities become safe-spaces for intolerance (AKA, Nazi bars).

          • @Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 hour ago

            I’m not in any way supporting or justifying their transphobic views, but having them and using them to influence open source development are 2 different things.

            My views define my choices. If I hated the flavour of coffee, I wouldn’t drink coffee. I would say no if you offered to buy me a coffee. I would avoid coffee-flavoured desserts. If I had an influence on a community space and made a decision that beverage-related discussions about other caffeinated drinks were acceptable, but not coffee, you could not argue in good faith that my personal views did not have a bearing on that.

            Having a bigoted view is never acceptable. Such people should not have an influence on communities, particularly when the group or groups they are bigoted against exist. Bigotry is hate, and hate is unacceptable. And hate is a very strong emotion for very weak and pathetic people, and it most certainly influences action, as the strength of the emotion is the only thing about them that makes them feel strong.

            Being hateful and acting on hate are exactly the same thing, because that is what hate motivates you to do.

              • @Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                41 hour ago

                This is a lie: “Yes, I hate people, but I don’t let it influence me.”

                This is because: Hate is how you see other people.

                If I see you as less than human, I will treat you as less than human.

      • @gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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        83 hours ago

        Report them. Transphobia violates the Lemmy.World ToS 1.2. If the community mods don’t handle it, then report it to an admin.

        • @Blazingtransfem98OP
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          33 hours ago

          Will it reach the admins there if I’m on a different instance? I’m not exactly sure how reports federate but I heard admins on other servers can’t see them, or won’t always see them.