So, historical materialism time: certain other banned subreddits with lemmy forks had issues early on rooting out racists and transphobes. There was a lot of pushback from the aggressively white/masc subset community for what they considered overreactions to microaggressions. But when push came to shove, they would often show their whole ass and post the most vitriolic and honestly boomer chud shit to grace the modlogs.
Please keep your minority comrades in mind when posting and moderating your communities. We are service workers, factory workers, and low-level clerks in this together with everyone else, and we would like to believe that socialists care about us too. This is not to say I doubt this community at all, but just wanted to convey lessons from the past.
Trans issues, pronouns, and race issues also make a great litmus tests for weeding out Maupin-type “nationalists” who are mainly self interested.
Hoping to see great things from this community, and nice to meet you all! (っ_)っ
This is why we explicitly include transphobia in Lemmygrad’s second rule “no bigotry”. It’s not merely a community rule, it’s valid for the whole website, and all users are encouraged to report those who openly display their chauvinism in any community. The administration has even intervened in the past to address transphobic tendencies from an administrator, which has left us since. Our anti-bigotry stance is non-negotiable.
Lemmygrad is a space where different people can learn with each other, united by the banner of communism. You don’t have to fully understand the subjective and objective experience of trans people to fully respect them as human beings.
But it should be clear to anyone who has at least superficially studied the matter: being anti-trans is anti-Marxist. Trans people have existed in all cultures throughout history, from the Sumerian gala priests to African and American societies which had up to 5 different conceptions of gender. Even the most patriarchal and male supremacist societies have had trans people, albeit under terrible circumstances, having to hide their true selves from the world.
This article by Red Fightback is a great introduction on the subject
This is great. When you are a minority there is nothing that stings quite like a comrade showing you they don’t ser you as their equal after all. It’s hard to have solidarity with a person who betrays your trust in a way that feels so personal. Let’s encourage conversations to understand and learn from each other, but let’s not force each other to defend our basic humanity.