Whilst this is not a local only post/community, it is primarily intended for blahaj lemmy members. Top level replies from non blahaj accounts will be removed.

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I want to take the moment to clarify the Blahaj Lemmy position on things, given recent events and the fallout that has followed. This will give people the chance to decide for themselves if blahaj zone lemmy is the right space for them, or if it doesn’t meet their needs.

First and foremost, blahaj zone lemmy exists to give a space for queer folk to exist, with their needs explicitly protected as the highest priority, and with a particular focus on the needs of gender diverse folk. Most lemmy instances are not run by trans folk, and whilst many are inclusive, they don’t always prioritise our needs. Others barely consider trans folk, and react only to the most blatant of bigotry.

We are not a political instance, however political communities have a space here, as does any community that is actively protective of the needs of queer and gender diverse folk. Given the impact of politics on gender diverse folk, that means lots of dialogue and strong opinions exist, and as long as those opinions are honestly held, and not bigoted or exclusive, people are welcome to have and express those opinions here.

For what it’s worth, I am a member of the Greens Party in Australia. I have no time for the middle ground politics of the Australian Labor party, let alone the right wing beliefs of the Australian Liberal party. Yet a community of queer Labor Party aligned folk would fit on blahaj lemmy, because the parties ideologies, are not explicitly anti queer. A community aligned with the Australian Liberal party likely would not have a place here, unless the goal of the community was to work at actively challenging the anti queer policies of the party.

That being said, political communities (or any other communities) that exist solely to target and take aim at other queer folk have no place here either. The goal of blahaj lemmy is queer inclusion, and a community whose sole goal is division, will be removed.

The downside to this is that as we assume good faith in members and we don’t gatekeep or deny access to people because of their pronouns or gender identity, (even when those identities are challenging to many) it is possible for bad faith actors to take advantage of our inclusive policies. Unfortunately, that’s just something we are going to have to navigate as it occurs, because I won’t let bad faith folk push this instance to defaulting to exclusion or gatekeeping the validity of someone’s identity. I will respect a trolls pronouns even as I ban them, because to not do so, normalises the idea that pronouns are something that are earned by good behaviour, or that other people have a say in the validity of another person’s identity and pronouns.

So that’s where we stand. Hopefully this will help people decide for themselves whether or not this is the right instance for them.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Many thanks to Ada here for the wisdom and patience it takes to navigate these challenges. Running an instance is hard enough; throwing user politics into the mix (especially those around trans identities) makes things down right treacherous.

    I’d support policies aligned with expected user behaviors and punishments for violations. Bad faith actors are going to try to burrow their way in here, and they’re going to make themselves known by testing boundaries and creeping up on the lines of what counts as unacceptable behavior. I’m comfortable with those kinds of edging-trolls being shown the door.

  • Zealousideal_Fox900@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    I am a blahaj member. The AusGreens have shown when I was a member that they are not afraid to dance the transphobic tango. AusLabor is pro trans and transphobia is much rarer. Don’t pretend like the greens are some knights of Australian Leftists.

    • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPM
      0·
      2 months ago

      The greens inability to deal with their internal TERFs is a huge problem. It’s the main reason I’m not terribly active with them despite being a member.

      My issues with Labor are bigger than trans their trans policy though

      • Zealousideal_Fox900@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 month ago

        Yeah unfortunately it seems like TERFs hide well there, as when I attended meetings as a member, there was about 2-3 people wearing TERF/similar shirts and things, and the topic came up once or twice. I reported this, to never get a reply.

    • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      No doubt that the Australian Greens have had, and continue to have, issues with transphobia. However, I think it’s disingenuous to say they are definitively a transphobic party. For example, Samantha Ratnam, the leader of the Victorian Greens, has been incredibly vocal in her support of trans members, as has Senator Janet Rice, as has federal party leader Adam Bandt.

      This is a pretty typical M.O. for TERFs, to specifically target progressive social movements from within and turn them against transgender persons. Are you suggesting that we roll over and give up, and just let the TERFs takeover the party? Like, I’m sorry, but I’m not a single issue voter. I care strongly about things like climate change, drug decriminalisation & harm reduction, reduction of the police force, sex worker rights and healthcare. Victorian Labor are very pro-cop for example, and I try hard to acknowledge my privilege as white by considering how that affects my queer PoC siblings first and foremost.

      This comment feels like you’re trolling honestly, especially because you say you’re a Blahaj member instead of just commenting with your Blahaj account…

      • Zealousideal_Fox900@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 month ago

        I should say, the reason I did not comment using my account was because I was accidentally banned in a wave, which has now been reversed. No need to have a tanty over it. Yeah another thing, I’m Trans and Indigenous, not just some white dude commenting. One more, I’m not rolling over, it’s just I have reported the TERFs and been ignored by the greens. And while I am replying, I think that the police need a massive chunk of reform, but we need to stop pretending like cops/rule enforcement isn’t somehow necessary. No matter what society, there will always be people who do vile, disgusting and horrible things and unfortunately I live in an area with that happening a lot, so please know I don’t live in some rich place with no crime and no reason to have cops. I care a lot about healthcare as someone who has conditions regularly requiring help, aswell as climate change as a young person. I don’t think the whole Greens are TERFS, just it has a serious issue with it.

    • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      2 months ago

      Yeah, even to my outsider eyes, that does seem an incredibly reasonable and well thought out statement. “Everybody is welcome - but these are our rules.” One of the strangely most adult things I’ve read for a bit…

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Likewise. This isn’t my home instance but it makes me happy to see overtly queer spaces here on Lemmy; I’m not trans, but my life has been immeasurably improved by being in community with trans people.

  • lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Lemmy is the only social media I actively interact with because of the unwavering support from Ada and Kaity to make this a safe space for all trans and queer people. I really feel at home here.

  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    2 months ago

    Thank you for this post <3

    Maybe this is off topic but I’m relatively new to Lemmy from Reddit and I’m curious about how upvotes / downvotes and moderation work here and what the philosophy is guiding it.

    If I see a post here on blahaj zone or elsewhere on Lemmy that isn’t against the rules but it’s disrespectful or misguided, my instinct is to downvote it, so it might be hidden from others unless they click to see it.

    When downvotes are disabled, these comments always have positive karma, and you can only tell that the community doesn’t support what they say based on the difference between the small number of upvotes of the disrespectful post vs the large number of upvotes on the post calling them out.

    I guess my question boils down to:

    • how does the Lemmy/blahaj karma system work and what is the philosophy of how it is better/different from Reddit?

    • Is there a way to sort comments so the “low karma” (but not new) comments are at the bottom, or hidden?

    Thanks for considering! And making a community that feels good to be a part of <3

    • ido@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      2 months ago

      On Lemmy, both upvotes and downvotes are aggregated together to give a post a sort of “score”. Currently, your post has 1 upvote, which would be yourself. If I were to upvote your post, this number would become 2. If 2 people were to downvote your post, however, it would become a -1. This does make it harder to judge the full reaction to a post, but some clients add a percentage next to this score to show the overall amount of people who upvoted vs downvoted. Also note that some Lemmy forks (like Mastodon or KBin) are also a microblogging platform that may not take upvotes/downvotes into as much consideration as opposed to other options.

      As for sorting, that is highly instance/client dependant as different instances can use different filters and algorithms to show you the same labelled sort category.

      Keep in mind that Lemmy was never supposed to be a reddit “replacement” and is its own platform entirely, some features do not have direct translations in that way. I would also like to say I moved to Lemmy during the initial reddit migration and learned from many meta posts explaining these topics then, if someone has better/more detailed information feel free to correct me.

  • SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    2 months ago

    I will respect a trolls pronouns even as I ban them, because to not do so, normalizes the idea that pronouns are something that are earned by good behavior…

    Well said and something I couldn’t quite articulate myself as I have seen bad actors abuse the inclusivity of this community. Really really like this mentality.