Dirty gender politics

[Servalan]

Don't know if anyone's ever come across it before, this is a site that wilfully incite animosity between the GLBT community and transsexuals:

It's obviously a hate blog, made obvious by the half-truths, cherry-picked science info and total misrepresentation of transsexuals generally.

[Arch]

Sorry, Servalan, but that blog is banned on Susan's, for the very reasons you mention in your post.

You can continue to discuss hate blogs, but please do not link to them.

[tomthom]

shouldn't we make counter blogs or improve awareness so that people can avoid them then? it seems kind of like treating it on the level of the boogeyman rather than actually dealing with it.

[Arch]

Tomthom, I'm not sure what you expect Susan's Place to do, in terms of "actually dealing with it." One thing we do is support our own, and one very productive way of helping our own is to disallow links to blogs that say vicious, uninformed, bigoted things that might trigger our membership. The best way for Susan's Place to deal with the hater blogs is to ignore them.

Quite a few trans people write blogs, but the people who read the hate blogs aren't going to get anything out of trans-positive blogs. The hater blogs tend to attract a very small, specialized readership of like-minded people who aren't interested in facts or truth.

But feel free to start your own awareness-raising blog if you like. It certainly can't hurt.

[tomthom]

by deal with it I men if we can get more hits on our page using the same keywords then it could functionally nullify their new readership. that and with ads you could help pay for this site. and we could actually post relevant things to us so it's not an abuse of people's bandwidth.

[Servalan]

Sorry, Servalan, but that blog is banned on Susan's, for the very reasons you mention in your post.

You can continue to discuss hate blogs, but please do not link to them.

Hi Arch.

As it is a form of censorship I can't agree with the site policy, but I will respect it. It is, after all, Susan's Place.

Hate blogs are one thing, but when celebrated academics such as Germaine Greer are leading the feminist charge against the trans community – armed to the teeth, peculiarly, with ignorance and misinformation – it's kind of hard to ignore. Should it be ignored? And, more to the point, can I post news articles that report on and cite such people?

[Jamie D]

No, this is not censorship, because each and everyone of us agreed to the Terms of Service and other rules of the site.

We don't allow links to hate sites of all sorts.  Members have been banned for advocating such things as anti-Semitism, radical feminism (womyn born womyn), racism, and any other noxious philosophy that would tear the TG/TS community apart, or suggest one segment of "our community is more legitimate, deserving, or more real than any others."

If you are unsure whether a potential news post would violate the site rules, please contact a member of the News Staff.

[tomthom]

I'm ok with however you guys wanna run this site, but wouldn't it be easier just to make a "trigger warning" section and let people do what they will? of course no racism or sexism or any of that, but just a place for us to be aware that there are people out there that dislike us for no good reason...?

[Jamie D]

I'm ok with however you guys wanna run this site, but wouldn't it be easier just to make a "trigger warning" section and let people do what they will? of course no racism or sexism or any of that, but just a place for us to be aware that there are people out there that dislike us for no good reason...?

I will post your idea on the internal "suggestions" board.

[Servalan]

Members have been banned for advocating such things as anti-Semitism, radical feminism (womyn born womyn), racism, and any other noxious philosophy that would tear the TG/TS community apart, or suggest one segment of "our community is more legitimate, deserving, or more real than any others."

I'm not sure what you're getting at; what does this have to do with my posts in this thread?

[Jamie D]

I simply reinforce the seriousness with which this divisive issue has been dealt in the past, and why the policy exists.

[Arch]

I hope you guys realize that if we do post links, even in an "enter at your own risk" thread, people WILL click on the hate sites and pump up the hits on those blogs. This means that, indirectly, Susan's is helping them to get hits.

Also, even if you try to post comments on those blogs, the owners will delete them or edit them to paint you in the worst light possible. This is standard practice on those blogs.

I should also mention that putting links to these sites and mentioning their names are actions that make this site (Susan's) and specific threads more easily googled by people who are looking for those sites or similar subject matter. I'm not sure what the overall effect of that is.

You are obviously free to hunt up these blogs and read them and even try to comment on them (good luck with that). And you can discuss them here as long as you don't run afoul of the TOS. But Susan's does have a prohibition against anti-trans material on her support site, and the hate blogs are definitely anti-trans--in spades.

[Arch]

Hate blogs are one thing, but when celebrated academics such as Germaine Greer are leading the feminist charge against the trans community – armed to the teeth, peculiarly, with ignorance and misinformation – it's kind of hard to ignore. Should it be ignored?

I'm not saying that you or any other person should ignore such things. I'm simply saying that ignoring such sites is most consistent with the primary mission of Susan's Place.

And, more to the point, can I post news articles that report on and cite such people?

You probably won't have to make such decisions. We have a news staff that posts trans-relevant material. Some of it is negative, but it's news ABOUT such people rather than unfiltered hate. If you ever want to post something and aren't sure whether it's okay, please run it by a staff member or an administrator first.