Last week was not one of the better weeks, for sure. Between the latest Lia Thomas circular firing squad/gang up, "not nice to fool Mother Nature" and "kochsucker", my stress level and mental health were not in a good place... So, I invoked guideline #5 myself. I've avoided everything outside of PM's, and reading and rec'ing a few select threads - though, I had to bite my tongue from shooting off my mouth over a reply in one of them.
You're right that our participation here should be safe, affirming, encouraged and celebrated. The same goes for LGB's, for the Jewish, for people of color, for everyone. But you know what? It's not. Some people never want it to be safe for those outside of those they accept. Others are doing the usual gearing up to find scapegoats with an election looming, and sadly cannot tell the difference between "culture wars" and outright bigotry (trying to stop 13 year olds from buying Grand Theft Auto V is a culture war... trying to deny trans people protected human rights is bigotry.) Some of us are left feeling things won't change without involvement from the admins, honestly. Attempting to speak up gets us ganged up on, spoken to like we're 3 (or our IQ is 3), and that we have no right to speak up here.
I do at least thank you for speaking up, and I'll keep that in mind to PM you should I see anything like the kind of crap we had here last week.
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