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.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      1 month ago

      Everything on the fediverse really depends on where you go. That’s kinda the whole point.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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        1 month ago

        It’s true, but it’s not obvious if you’re new to the fediverse, since until now the closest we’ve had to decentralized communities online is Usenet and that’s only familiar to you if you’re been online for 30 years or more.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      1 month ago

      Yeah I haven’t seen any mods who are for it, granted OP is on discuss.online and I have defederated a lot of hate instances. People on beehaw, lemmy.world, and quite a few others have been if anything overly accepting than not. However, it’s why I discourage browsing all and instead curating a list of communities.

      • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineOP
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        1 month ago

        I only saw one Mod who was for it and he wasn’t even using his mod powers to push it, he was just pushing transphobia apologia and happened to be a mod in a different community. He got banned quickly from the community he did it in by the way. Glad he did, I’m sure he would’ve kept going if they didn’t. Though I do regret posting to his community. I might make a post addressing it later in !trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone so people know to steer clear of those communities.

    • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineOP
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      1 month ago

      I have too, !mtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone, !trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone, and !asktransgender@lemmy.blahaj.zone are some really nice ones. Most of what I’ve seen weren’t bad communities or even bad posts, it was users commenting under posts, sometimes their own, sometimes other people’s. Some weren’t even in communities related to LGBTQ, but it came up and they were talking about it. Most of the users had the @lemmy.world extension but a few were lemmy.ml, and a few others too.

    • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      I have many issues with hexbear, but transphobia is not one of them. They are explicitly and aggressively trans inclusive

    • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineOP
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      1 month ago

      Most of the people exhibiting the transphobic traits and behaviors I’ve mentioned had @lemmy.world extensions on their account. I saw only a few from lemmy.ml doing it, and essentially no hexbears doing it at all.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Those instances are terrible for many, many reasons. Transphobia is NOT one of those reasons.

  • woelkchen@lemmy.worldM
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    1 month ago

    This thread transformed from being about a serious issue on the fediverse into a pile of accusations on a personal level. I don’t see this thread becoming any more civilized the way the comments are spiraling downwards. I’m keeping the post up because, as I said, this is a serious issue, but I don’t think keeping the thread unlocked is doing any good.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    I know it’s not specific to the Fediverse, but I recommend you watch this video from Fran Blanche: it’s eye-opening and a bit heart-breaking:

    When Google calls you a slur

    Fran Blanche is a genuinely kind person, a good engineer, and her career has been hobbled by rampant transphobia.

  • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineOP
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    1 month ago

    The downvotes on this thread might be a very good way for admins to identify transphobic people, most of them are likely either transphobes or bots run by transphobes. If you’re not interested maybe still collect the names and send it to @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone so she can use it to better clean up their instance from silent transphobia.

      • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineOP
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        1 month ago

        It’s almost certainly transphobic people or bots run by transphobic people. Either way people who don’t bring anything positive to the discussion and who bear hostility to the trans community, hence why I say the downvotes on the post can be used to find some of the more quiet transphobes and ban them.

    • TriflingToad@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      “anyone who doesn’t want my change needs to be banned!”
      They’ll always exist and you need to accept that as a fact. Just silencing people you disagree with isnt a way to solve the problem.

  • Socialist Mormon Satanist@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Yep, I noticed that too, OP. And when I point it out, they claim I’m crying victim or that I have “main character syndrome” or that I am sealioning.

    But you’re not alone. Other people notice this just like you do.

    • pooperNickel@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Note how this reply has fuck all to do with anything. It is just here to lure people into viewing their “interesting” profile.