Georgia Pai
Community Observation Essay #2
ENGL 21002
How Discord Works With The Trans Community To Create Safe Spaces
This paper will explore the history of and the online interactions within the transgender community. Transgender or trans for short, refers to one who identifies as a differing gender from the sex they were assigned to at birth. This group is considered marginalized as they are a part of the broader LGBTQIA+ community. In more recent years public awareness on transgender issues have risen, as well as the amount of people who identify as such. This could be partially attributed to said rise in awareness and the resulting increase of social acceptability. More people have been able to better understand their gender identity and feel comfortable embracing it because of modern day progressivism. Discord is the platform I chose to observe this community, as I understand many people a part of it are active there on certain servers. It is a platform that allows people within marginalized communities to connect with one another by creating safe spaces. The community is fairly unique because there is such a wide variety of personalities and views. I think a majority of society has specific stereotypes about the community, and mainstream representation of trans people is largely dominated by white, economically advantaged, and conventionally attractive people, those who “pass”. The term “passing” refers to a trans identifying person who can “pass” as their identifying gender. Online communities allow underrepresented members to socialize and discuss their experiences with people they can relate to. There are many reasons why this community is marginalized. There are a lot of negative perceptions due to the spread of misinformation about the community. This further perpetuates a stigma around the trans community, who already have to endure harassment and discrimination. This community also lacks legal protection and it is hard for them to legally identify as who they are.
As of today, approximately over two million people within the U.S. identify as transgender. The term only came into fruition during the 20th century, but those identifying have of course been around for much longer in every different culture. Trans visibility is now more relevant, with there being a lot more representation in popular media within the last decade. This is very important as the number of identifying trans people is decently significant in the U.S. today. According to Pew Research Center, “three out of every ten adults in the U.S. personally knows someone who is trans” (Pew Research Center, Where The Public Stands on Religious Liberty Vs. Non Discrimination, 2016). The trans community is extremely diverse, there are transgender women and men, as well as those identifying as nonbinary and such. Despite the increase in mainstream trans representation and acceptance, this community still faces a large amount of discrimination, harassment, and violence. Trans people unfortunately endure an exorbitant amount of violence compared to the average citizen. The Human Rights Campaign states that “Over a majority (54%) of trans people have experienced some form of intimate partner violence, 47% have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime and nearly one in ten were physically assaulted in between 2014 and 2015. This type of violence can be fatal. At least 27 trans and gender non-conforming people have been violently killed in 2020 thus far, the same number of fatalities observed in 2019” (HRC Foudation, N/A).
I observed this community in the beginning of December for approximately three days on a server called “Trans Haven” on discord. I would just continuously pop in the see what they were chatting about and if they were hosting online events. This community is drawn together by each members gender non conforming gender identity or by friends and allies who support them. The community was originally created to provide a safe haven for people who identify as transgender. The leaders are the owner of the server and their moderators. There is one owner and two main moderators, six helpers, and one “community manager”. All of these people work to facilitate the community and make sure everyone is interacting well with one another. Before entering this community you must read over the guidelines for interaction. Everything must be appropriate, you must be a support of transgender identifying people or identify as that yourself, and etc. Gatekeeping is not permitted, relating to things like transmedicalism and such. For example, you cant tell someone that they need a diagnosis in order to be considered apart of the community. Members are also not allowed to promote DIY HRT, which means creating your own hormone therapy replacement. The previously mentioned “staff” reserve the right to require users to change the topic of any conversation if it seems jarring, triggering, or sensitive to certain users. They address each other just as normal friends would in a group chat, by either their real name if they felt comfortable sharing it or their screen name/username or nickname. I mainly noticed that unlike many other more “toxic” discord servers this one seemed more wholesome and less prone to arguments relating to social or political matters. They truly just want to create a small safe space for people to talk about their life with people in similar positions as them. The members chat with each other about project they’re working on, stuff that’s going on in their daily life, and their interests. Everybody seems very encouraging and supportive. Trans issues aren’t the main topic of discussion, it is just a similarity that initially brought these people together. They also participate in community events on a daily basis, like poetry readings and movie nights. The interactions are simple but wholesome and probably brighten everyones day. A specific example I’ll provide is just a random little conversation between a few members about their day. One is just telling the other members about how they haven’t drank water ina few hours, and the others are saying oh no you’ll get dehydrated. Then they start talking about cats and sharing emoticons/photos. It’s hard to really follow along with these conversations and write about them because they are pretty random.
Overall, the community was an extremely wholesome place to be and I can see how members use their online friends as a form of escapism from day to day reality. It’s nice for anybody to feel like they have a safe place to relax even when they’re at home alone. Online spaces can be very helpful for people’s mental health (if they’re participating in the right ones). I guess I was kind of surprised that they didn’t really discuss trans related topics or issues with each other. But at the same time, obviously a persons identity does not only revolve around their gender identity. The community is intriguing because of just how purely supportive everyone is. There is also a “support chat” where people can rant about their problems in the real world and people will give them advice. The people giving support and advice always very genuine and non critical. I wasn’t exactly disturbed by anything because I was familiar with most o the subject matter. There was some incidences in the support chat where people briefly talked about battling with histories self harm and darker subject matter, which is of course triggering and disturbing to most people. It can be daunting and scary to read.
References
N/A, (N/A). Understanding The Transgender Community, Human Rights Campaign. https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community
N/A, (2016). Where The Public Stands on Religious Liberty Vs. Non Discrimination, Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/09/28/5-vast-majority-of-americans-know-someone-who-is-gay-fewer-know-someone-who-is-transgender/
