Yesterday's Most Active Thread

Yesterday's top thread in number of views may have also been the top thread in number of replies, except that I removed two-thirds of the replies. The thread, titled, "Reuters article on trans youth care" was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum and discussed a long article by Reuters that delved in to the topic of gender-affirming care. In one of the earlier blog posts in this series I mentioned that topics related to transgender issues are among the most controversial and this thread certainly continued that trend.

I receive a lot of criticism from posters who are not happy about how I moderate threads dealing with transgender issues, so I'll take this opportunity to explain my position on the issue. My primary goal is that DCUM not be used to spread further prejudice or hatred towards transgender individuals. So important is this goal to me, that I am quite willing to error on the side of caution. Therefore, it is not only possible, but actually likely that I have overstepped at times. I am completely comfortable if that is the case.

What I have observed from these threads is that there is a small group of obvious transphobes who reject the use of preferred pronouns, refuse to accept that gender might not match biological sex, and enjoy using tired and obnoxious retorts (e.g. "I identify as a cat"). I am pretty sure that there is very little objection from our posters to my removing posts from this group. There is another group of users to whom I informally refer to as "professional anti-Trans posters", though most members of this group would vehemently deny being anti-Trans. These posters are extremely well-versed about trans issues, seeming to have countless facts and data at their fingertips. Members of this group will post incessantly and dominate threads dealing with transgender topics.

To the extent that I have delved into it — which is not very far to be honest — this group seems to get their information from a handful of prominent online, anti-trans activists who have basically made careers out of critiquing the transgender community and the discourse surrounding it. This highlights one of the ironies that I've noticed. It is very common for posters to claim that today's youth are being indoctrinated by online trans activists who promote transgenderism on social media, especially TikTok and Instagram. To the extent that is true — and I don't know to what extent that is — I think that it is fair to ask whether these anti-Trans professionals are being similarly indoctrinated by online activists. I am simply astonished that they dedicate so much time and energy to something that in almost all cases does not directly impact them.

To be sure, the posters to whom I refer to as "anti-Trans professionals" almost uniformly express sympathy for trans individuals whom they claim to respect. But so often their questioning morphs into outright denial as they continue to post. In yesterday's thread, for example, a poster started out with what is kind of a now-standard disclaimer that they aren't anti-Trans and think transgender people deserve respect and support, but within a couple of pages the same poster made a vicious, very personal, and completely inappropriate insult to a poster they apparently thought was transgender.

My biggest issue with the professional anti-Trans posters is not that they are necessarily wrong -- frankly, I have no idea whether they are right or wrong. It's that they take over threads and divert them from the original topic and into a debate about transgenderism itself. It seems as if a mere mention of "transgender", regardless of the context of how it is used, is seen as an invitation for the anti-Trans professionals to unleash their quiver of debate points whether they fit the discussion or not. Then, they almost immediately take over the thread. The result is similar to what happened with yesterday's thread. I remove the off-topic posts and a six page thread is shortened to two pages.

It has not escaped me that one of the biggest complaints from the anti-Trans professionals is that they risk being "cancelled" due to their positions on trans issues and, in fact, I diligently cancel them. Whether it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, an expected and appropriate outcome, or an error on my part I can't say. But, as I said earlier, I am quite comfortable in any case.

In other posts in this series I have mentioned several threads. But, given the length of this post, I'll stop here.