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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

This post is "FYI only" for blahaj lemmy members. It is not a debate, and is not intended for non blahaj lemmy users to weigh in and offer opinions.

I recently received reports of a feddit.uk user espousing transphobia. Specifically, this was a feddit.uk user refusing to use the word cis, repeating the "adult human female" dog whistle, and claiming that trans women are not women. I approached a member of the feddit.uk admin team and raised my concerns and sought clarification of their stance on posts like this, where the transphobia is mostly dogwhistles, and "civil disagreement" on the validity of trans folk.

I was told by the feddit.uk admin that their preferred response is this kind of transphobia is to "sort it out through discussion and voting". However, the comments in question are currently more upvoted than downvoted, and little "sorting out" has occurred. The posts remain in place.

At this point, the admin stopped responding to my messages despite being active elsewhere on lemmy. When it became clear they were ignoring my messages and had no intention of removing the posts in question, I made the decision to defederate the instance.

I know some folk agree with the feddit.uk admins approach of pushback through discussion and voting, but this instance is not designed to be that kind of space. Blahaj lemmy is meant to be a place where we can avoid the rampant transphobia universally visible on nearly every other social media platform, and where we can exist without needing to debate our right to do so.

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[-] [email protected] 213 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Obviously I'm not on blahaj, but I think the decision is pretty on point for the goals of blahaj.

It also makes me disappointed in feddit.uk. "Leave it to discussion/votes" is bullshit and just support for the behavior.

Edit: The admin responded elsewhere with "we want to make sure we comply with the law".

My comment remains unchanged. Allowing this is support. Fuck your bullshit law. You're explicitly supporting this bullshit by your inaction.

[-] [email protected] 90 points 1 month ago

Right? Imagine if you said that about the rights for like black women or something? Like, come ON. It's 2025, we KNOW these behaviors are bigoted, rules are way too chill with letting shit like that fly, and is part of the reason it's so prolific now - it's not being treated like the hate speech that it is, and people in power in certain places are like "no I'm not sure we need to discuss it again". It's just gross and horrible and makes me feel so fucking helpless sometimes when a space is dominated with shitties like that.

[-] [email protected] 48 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

100%.

It's nothing short of support for the behavior. Its why I constantly comment of Lemmy.world being trash, and why I say 196 mods are garbage and don't belong on blahaj, long live [email protected].

Even suggesting that sort of vile nonsense is worth discussing/voting on makes them bigoted morons.

Edit: Sorry I sound cranky about it, but this "tEaCh tHe CoNtRoVeRsY" garbage puts me in a cranky mood.

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[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago

Agreed, fuck 'em.

If the users of feddit.uk want to engage with us, they're totally welcome to do so on our terms by making an account somewhere that holds their users to a better standard. I hope they do. As far as I'm concerned, the users are cool, but we don't have to coddle somebody else's bigotry or put up with hatred.

[-] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago

"we want to make sure we comply with the law"

on here?

...Christ, why? lmao

They must think they're the main character of lemmy or someshit.

[-] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

Just as bad as Lemmy.world with their admins being totally pro lawyers who just haven't taken the bar, they'd totally pass though.

Maybe worse, we'll see.

[-] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"meh, those things sound like work"

-- feddit.uk admin

[-] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago

They had the time to make a new rule about no generative AI content but couldn't work this out? Stuff em.

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[-] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago

You kick ass Ada. Thanks for all you do.

[-] [email protected] 87 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm not a blåhaj user, but I really hope the feddit.uk mindset on this doesn't spread to other instances.

Why do divisive people have to care so much about letting people do what they want if it doesn't affect them? What someone wants to do with their body does NOT affect you, but your open derogatory statements about them DOES affect them!

[-] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago

This has always been my stance. If it doesn't affect me, then I am always on the side of people's rights. Automatically. Even if it does affect me, I'm still more likely to be in favor of people's rights. Especially if the people in question are losing rights. I simply don't understand people who think loss of rights stops at people they don't like. It just doesn't work that way. A loss of ANY right against ANYONE is a personal loss of rights.

For instance, I'm not LGBTQ+. But I will fight like hell for their rights. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but because I know what happens when the LGBTQ+ people are gone. These are innocent people who just want to live their life and are under constant threat from physical and legal harm. The fact that Christians get so up in arms about even seeing two men kiss, or holding hands pisses me off on a level I can't describe. Especially when you consider the huge proportion of child molestation in the church. And it is very common that that child molestation was against a child of the same sex as the adult.

I'm not saying there's a causation there, but there's definitely correlation. And that correlation isn't homosexuality of the abuser. The correlation is power. Teaching, clergy, Hollywood, right wing, left wing, it happens on both sides, on all levels, and of moderates as well. But the one thing that always unifies EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. is power. 100%, every single time.

However, Republicans tend to have power/Dom fantasies at a FAR higher rate than Democrats. And again, I'm not saying that's a causation, but it is a correlation.

Power fantasies are insanely dangerous, even if the person is a "lowly" cook. It's potentially civilization ending if the person has the power of the US military. And I've yet to ever hear a Democrat fantasize about being president. Honestly even thinking about it... Fuck that. I can't handle that kind of responsibility. But I guess if trump "can" do it, then I could as well.

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[-] [email protected] 83 points 1 month ago

As a denizen of terf island myself, all I can say is; fucking good! Our enemies hide behind statements like "just asking questions", but there's no room for debate when it comes to people's rights and look where that thinking has gotten us.

The time for debate is over. I want my rights back.

[-] [email protected] 68 points 1 month ago

Unfortunate that you had to do that, but it sounds to me like you make the right call. Keep being great 💖🤍🩵

[-] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago

Of course it had to be feddit.uk

[-] [email protected] 76 points 1 month ago

They don't call it TERF Island for nothing.

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[-] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago

Blahaj user and former Brit here ... well done Ada for consistency and transparency regarding this.

The whole "let it play out" attitude really says it all, it shows cowardice and a lack of leadership ... kind of like the current prime minister.

[-] [email protected] 58 points 1 month ago

Another non-blahaj here to say FUCK YEAH, Ada.

Deplatforming works. Demanding civility from people under attack by disingenuous, insincere "intellectuals" is so much more than just tone policing; it's direct enablement of disenfranchisement and allowing the spread of harm.

It's easy to be bad. It's hard to be good. When bad people are allowed to express their evil ideologies, it is much easier for people to pick up the evil than for the righteous to defend the good.

We cannot be tolerant of intolerance.

So, again, FUCK YEAH, Ada. You rock for protecting your users AND the rest of the world by contributing to the deplatforming of bigots.

[-] [email protected] 52 points 1 month ago

hard mode: uk stop being transphobic for two seconds.

[-] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago

What's "adult human female" referring to? Asking so I can keep an eye out for this in the future

[-] [email protected] 83 points 1 month ago

It's a transphobic dog whistle. Popularised by UK transphobes. The implication is that trans women aren't women, and when you see it used, that's what they're really saying.

[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 month ago

Thanks Ada. It's exhausting (emotionally and spiritually) to try to keep up with the ways in which people express their hate for us, but it's certainly essential for keeping ourselves safe, so I'm thankful to have learned something new.

[-] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago

Adult human female is a dog whistle used by TERFs (and transphobes more broadly) to make it clear that they are specifically excluding trans women from the definition of womanhood; that is, it’s shorthand for saying that ‘adult human females’ are the only category of person that can be called a woman.

[-] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As a Brit myself, it saddens me how much hate is leeching from my country - especially towards minorities.

Thank you to the mods for making this community open so that people like me can lurk and learn to be better, while simultaneously protecting the people who depend on and need this safe space. Defederating was the right choice.

I won’t pretend I’m well versed in trans issues and struggles - I’m a cishet guy with no real skin in the game but I want to be an ally.

If anyone has good resources for someone like me to read so I can be better armed to refute and educate others who are being hateful, please let me know. The surge in hate after the recent Supreme Court ruling here in the UK has made it painfully clear being passive on the sidelines isn’t acceptable.

Huge apologies in advance if I’ve phrased anything hurtfully. I just want to learn.

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[-] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago

That's fair.

People like that will say "just block them" with one fork of their tongue, and then "sort it out through discussion and voting" with the other fork.

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[-] [email protected] 45 points 1 month ago

Based Blåhaj admin is based.

[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago

Thanks for doing what you do.

It's ridiculous we are still having to deal with this in 2025. Just yesterday I had to see someone using the tslur as a "joke" under a .world post. Mods removed it. It's not hard to be decent, although some people decide to make it look like an impossible task. As far as I'm concerned, hate speech is not free speech...

[-] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago

The way I see it, free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences for what you say. You're free to walk up to the friend group and act like a jackass and personally insult everyone. And they're free to tell you to fk off and stop being friends with you and talking to you. That's not an infringement on your right to free speech, that's consequences for your actions.

These 'free speech' people act like the real world is this place where you can just approach and interrupt any conversation and enter any club without following the rules. They act like groups of like minded people getting together to share interests and ideas without wanting to constantly defend themselves and 'debate' their interests and beliefs is some new thing brought to us by the woke agenda.

And so they think social media should be this place where you can say whatever to whoever, wherever you want and if anyone has a problem with that, they're just anti 'free speech' woke libs or some shit.

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[-] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago

Terf island strikes again!

[-] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago

I'm coming from a small brazillian instance and we're also getting attacks on the brazillian trans community, on our case is the medical association, dictating that doctors couldn't treat trans kids.

I asked my admin to support you and to de federate them until they change their policy, hope other instances join too.

[-] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I appreciate this move. The nice thing about the Fediverse is that admins can take a step like this to protect the integrity of this instance, and users can still engage with that stuff if they create an account on another instance. I'll continue to argue with bigots elsewhere but I'm grateful for how the admins curate Blahaj Lemmy.

It's a shame how the UK seems to be heading backwards on human rights, and shameful how the UK government has decided to throw in with the bigots and embolden them.

[-] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago

If instances aren't willing to moderate themselves when it comes to transphobia they should get the boot. I hope more instances defederate feddit.uk over this. Might make them change course and rethink if they should maybe moderate better.

[-] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago

Thank you for your hard work on making blahaj a great place for everyone!

[-] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago

Transphobia has no place on anything I use. I may not be one of the folks on your instance, but I still appreciate the good work.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ada trying not to slay challenge (Impossible)

[-] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago

Non-blahaj user weighing in

Well done 👏👏👏

[-] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

Thanks Ada!

I hope the feddit.uk admins reconsider their approach to moderating transphobia, but in the mean time I appreciate your protective stance. 💗

[-] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

Common Ada W

[-] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago

Thank you for taking real direct action on issues like this. It keeps our community safe.

[-] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Stay classy, TERF Island.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

Sounds like the right move. Thank you.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

thank u adaaaaa! luv u!

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this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
691 points (91.6% liked)

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