I recently made a new account on lemmy.blahaj.zone, because I’ve been harassed and doxxed on my old account and I wanted a fresh start with a more lighthearted online identity that I could be more open about my gender identity on. I’d heard blahaj zone was good for trans people, so I made my account there. And yeah, [email protected] removed my post discussing neuronormativism from a queer perspective, but I hoped maybe “the trans instance” would be friendlier to trans people.
A couple days after making my account, I saw someone on Blahaj engaging in the tired old cliche of “I hate politics, there’s no politics on my social media and I want to keep it that way!” Well we’ve all heard the joke that the two races are white and political, the two genders are male and political, and the two sexualities are straight and political. Hatred of politics is a transphobic, sexist, and racist trope. And having sufferred harassment and abuse from people inside the queer community who “hated politics” and saw trans or nonbinary or xenogender identities as political, I knew this kind of speech was going to make bigots feel comfortable saying they also hate politics, and they think us trans people are it.
So, I responded to the transphobia. I started out by attempting to educate them on what politics actually means. But I was interrupted by the Blahaj admin Ada, who told me that politics is “anything I disagree with”, and that indeed politics isn’t welcome on Blahaj. This language was deeply triggering of my past issues dealing with abuse, and I knew from past experience this sort of thing is said by people who are getting ready to say some enbyphobic or racist hate speech. It is especially common for white queer people to talk this way to BIPOC queer people. I tried to reason with Ada, explained the history of the cliche, the trauma it’s caused many trans people, and the consequences this kind of speech will have on the community here, making us all less safe.
Ada wasn’t having it. She minimised my concerns by reducing them to my personal trauma while ignoring my wider concerns for others’ safety, and weaponised my PTSD to paint my opinions as invalid because I am mentally ill. She said she owns Blahaj, and she gets to do whatever she wants with it, and nobody is allowed to express a differing opinion, even one that protects trans people, because that’s politics. At the time I thought her concern was me speaking directly to transphobes and making them feel uncomfortable by calling out their actions, so I said I’d just report it instead, and she banned my account.
This behaviour protects transphobes, WILL lead to trans and BIPOC people being harassed on this instance, attacks and gaslights victims of trauma (my concerns can’t be valid because I have a mental illness), and forces out any trans person with a commitment to safety for the community.
The thread where all this happened: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/2143969
I’m locking this thread, as I can envision this going south very quickly. Remember to be(e) nice.
I want to keep this space as one where people can be free to vent. That being said, I’m honestly kind of loath to encourage fedi drama from other instances leaking over here. I’m not saying you can’t vent about other instances, but I don’t intend for this to become Subreddit Drama.
Anyway, OP, after reading through everything, you’re coming off as needlessly hostile. I don’t think that’s how you meant to be, but that’s what you appear to be. If you see someone who mentions that they don’t have it in them to follow politics, you shouldn’t be pushing back on that unless it’s clear they’re doing so in bad faith. As someone who does follow politics, it can get depressing. It can be bleak. And it can get overwhelming. If you are able to power through that, great! It helps. But not everybody can read about how the right is planning to genocide us. I guarantee that there are trans people who have taken their own lives over this. I guarantee it. Your demand that people refrain from saying they don’t follow politics is deeply, deeply misguiding. It isn’t your place to determine what people can and can’t do. And that’s exactly what you sound like. Also, it looks like you got banned for a flippant, ableist comment. Suffice it to say that I won’t tolerate that here. Be(e) nice.