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
Hating politics is not transphobic.
I don’t believe that’s what they were saying. They were saying that transphobes often use the phrase to shut down conversation about their transphobic comments. That doesn’t mean anyone who uses the phrase is a transphobe using it for that purpose.
It’s literally what they are saying. Just look at their reply to me.
Thanks for the pointer, I agree with you now. What I get for giving people a shred of the benefit of the doubt…
Trans people are political, whether we want to be or not. When we start adopting this “hating politics” language, we implicitly accept the mechanisms that oppress us and make transphobia easier for other people. Hating politics is transphobic.
Claiming things that are not transphobic (like this) are transphobic is harmful to trans people. This explains why you were banned. Blahaj doesn’t allow transphobia or people who harm the trans community like you are doing.
Claiming things that are transphobic (like this) are not tranphobic is harmful to trans people. This tells us that Blahaj is transphobic. It doesn’t allow trans rights or people who protect the trans community like I am doing.
The troll once again showing their colors. Thanks for the entertainment and outing yourself as a hate filled bigot.
Before anyone tries to argue that they can’t be a bigot because they’re NonBinary, just keep in mind that transmedicalists are openly and directly transphobic despite being transgender themselves. Just because this person is NonBinary that doesn’t make them not a hate-filled bigot, they still indeed are one, and in a way it’s actually worse because they’ll just say people are being transphobic or enbyphobic towards them when people try to call them out, which ends up being harmful because they’re calling things that aren’t transphobic transphobic. That reflects negatively on trans people and takes away from the ability to call out actual transphobia.
Exactly. Thank you for saying this is in a better way than I could.