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, autism@lemmy.world 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

      • Link.wav [he/him]@beehaw.org
        16·
        1 year ago

        Wrong. The spirit of this instance’s rules can be summed up in “bee kind.” When you direct LGBTQIA people and other marginalized groups that we have to assume good faith from blatantly bad-faith actors, you are not being empathetic or kind. Sea lioning is a well understood tactic used by fascists to derail conversations and take control of communities. I’ve been here a while, and I think you can browse old threads with the beehaw admins to feel confident that calling a sea lion a “sea lion” does not conflict with our rules here. In fact, I would likely use (and probably have used) the term when sending my reports.

        Recognizing sea lions does not require mind reading because, again, it’s a very well defined and understood derailment tactic. It has nothing to do with differing abilities, but rather is a series of deliberate steps taken to derail conversations. You even had neurodivergent people in that thread trying to explain to you as much, but you ignored and dismissed anyone who disagreed with you, which was … everyone present, I think.

        And it appears you are continuing the same pattern of dishonesty and bad faith here. Looks to me like the blahaj admins were actually patient and kind, trying their best to resolve the issue without a ban, and you’ve retaliated by posting this same thing across numerous instances in some sort of smear campaign.

        So I’m reporting this behavior, and if you really think I’m breaking the spirit of beehaw’s rules by stating that I won’t engage with fascists, then you go right ahead and do what you think you need to do. I blocked your other account, and I’ll do the same here as well.