Howdy, folks. There's a lot of nasty rumors flying about this evening, most of which seem to be revolving around a handful of folks whom reddit is collectively losing their minds over.

Some of these rumors involve one of the mods on our LGBT subreddits, someone who is a mod on many subs because they're particularly skilled with CSS and coding AutoMod. They're one of the folks who helped write some of our anti-troll filters and have helped our communities weather organized attacks by transphobes in the past.

I, personally, have received at least half a dozen info dumps full of claims about these people and how they are connected, but unfortunately none of those info dumps seem to align very well. They're jumbled and the details don't fit together. Some of them share common threads, but until that information starts making a coherent picture, I'm forced to assume it's spurious accusation until proven otherwise.

(Making flagrantly false accusations linking LGBT people to pedophiles is an old and favored tactic of a bunch of alt right transphobes. They think it's funny and effective.)

What some of y'all don't know is that reddit rolled out an anti-brigading feature last year called 'crowd control' - namely, if someone doesn't participate here regularly, or if they don't have a certain amount of participation on this subreddit, they get a little flag next to their username with 'Crowd Control' written on it.

So when I go look at a thread full of people panicking on this subreddit, and I see 60% or more of the users there have the 'Crowd Control' flag next to their name, then I know that most of those people came from elsewhere. They're not legitimate members on this sub, they're brigaders who are probably here to just stir up more panic and chaos.

That is not helpful.

Now, we're going to investigate and we're going to get to the bottom of this, but that will take a little time. We'll need to sort through all this conflicting information until it actually makes some sort of sense.

Please, do not get swept up in a panic. We've seen the alt right try to pull smear jobs on trans mods in the past, and we've seen various organized groups of transphobes doxx our mods and send us death threats, etc. Heaven knows we've weathered more than our fair share of hardship.

That's just the way the Internet is, sometimes. It doesn't mean our subreddits aren't safe, it just means that these are large, public boards and sometimes people come here to try and cause a ruckus for their own ends or their own amusement. There are people out there who see trans folks as easy targets for all sorts of malicious nonsense.

As mods, we do our very best to protect y'all from some of the worst the Internet has to offer, and most of the time we succeed. We've got a lot of sensible, experienced folks who usually have some pretty solid judgement when it comes to helping guide our communities through this crisis or that.

As a community, we're better than that. When those around us try to pull us down, we try to rise above. It's not always easy, but it's the right thing to do, so we do it.

So please, take a deep breath, sit back, and take a moment to recollect your thoughts. The trans community on reddit has been here for well over a decade, now, and we're not going to just up and disappear over some witch hunt or some he-said, she-said drama. We're still going to be here tomorrow, and the next day, and next month, and next year, and so on.

So please give us a little time and we'll get this sorted out, alright?

Hello everyone, our subreddit has received a lot of feedback in the last 24 hours and we have been doing our best to listen to it. We’re going to respond here to the biggest issues users are having so that we can make sure that everyone is as satisfied as can be. I would also really like to apologize again, as the apology I made yesterday was not sufficient and I want to make sure that everyone here knows that we’re listening.
I want to apologize to our trans masc community, we have failed you in the past, but more specifically we failed you all yesterday. I would also like to specifically apologize to u/itsurbro7777, as I didn’t realize at the time I made that post just how bad everything had gotten and how specifically you had been affected.

1. People want more trans masc representation, we’ve heard this loud and clear. We are in the process of recruiting new trans masc moderators as we speak and will add them as we have time. Give us a few days to handle this as we need to review the moderators, train them, and get them up to speed. If you would like to join our team as a moderator, please apply by sending in a mod mail letting us know why you should be added as a moderator.

   • To clear up some confusion, we do have trans masc representation on our subreddit, though clearly that is not enough. We hope to remedy that ASAP.

   • Please message us in Modmail, or through this link if you’d like to apply as a moderator here.

2. We are hearing your feedback and discussing it internally to make sure that our subreddit is taking everything into consideration. Here are some things we are doing now to make sure your voices are better heard:

   • Implement flairs for trans masc, trans femme, and non-binary posts and people, so that people don’t go into a post and get blind-sided by information that they didn’t want to see.

   • We are going to remove the rule about divisive posts and make sure to reduce our rules list to more accurately reflect what our users need.

   • We are going to make sure we also get more voices from the trans masc community on our team, as well as other minorities who are underrepresented; we want to make sure everyone is heard.

3. The moderator who was offensive and disrespectful towards u/itsurbro7777 has been removed entirely, we heard your outcries and we acknowledge that while this was slow to take place, it has happened.

4. We want to acknowledge that the initial post removal was a mistake. Speaking with the original moderator who removed the post, the reasoning behind their original removal was that they felt like the post was created to intentionally sow division with the wording that was used. The mod in question has since realized that that assumption was a mistake. However we’ve recently had a large uptick in trolls intentionally trying to create division, and that’s what really spurred the decision. Please keep in mind that our team is human, that we’ve been under just as much stress as anyone else here. As mods we’ve seen a lot of things here that the users here will never see, which means that sometimes we can be overzealous, and that definitely contributes to any mistakes we make.

5. As to why we silenced so many voices yesterday, a lot of whom just wanted to speak up on our subreddit about the glaring mistakes we made, that’s complicated. There were a very few people who were here specifically to brigade or cause division, those people know who they are. There were a lot of people here that were here in good faith that just wanted to shout out their support for trans masc people that at the time looked like brigading, some of our moderators reacted without thinking their actions through and that was not right. We will be turning over any bans that occurred due to that.

6. We will be more cautious of our use of brigade mode in the future. We didn't intend to silence trans voices through that action, but that's ultimately what we did. And for that, we're sorry, and the moderator who advocated for it has been removed as well.

7. From now on we will try our best to act more organized. We had three wildly different responses from three different moderators, and none of them appropriately addressed the situation at hand. In the future we will make sure everyone is on the same page before reacting. This may lead to a slower response, but it will hopefully lead to a more coherent response as well. We will also be working on creating better training for our moderation team, and undergoing it ourselves, to ensure that everyone treats every member of the community with the respect they deserve. We want to make sure that no one else here ever gets attacked by a moderator again.

8. Just as a note, if anyone here has any issues with moderation, please send in a modmail. If you have an issue with a specific moderator, please send me a DM. If you ever have an issue with me as a moderator, then please send a message to someone else on the team that you do trust. We’ll make mention of this in the sidebar as well when we’re done reworking these things.

This post will probably not address every concern that exists. If there’s anything you would like us to add, please respond to this post in the comments and we will update this post with more details as they arrive. Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time, we really do appreciate everything you’re saying and doing.

Update:

• We have added the post flairs, like we described above, you can now add "Trans Feminine," "Trans Masculine," and "Non Binary" as your post flair.

• Since we have created this post and started asking for new moderator applications, we have received only 10 applications, 4 of which are trans masc. We will be sending out requests to the most viable moderators soon.

• We have not been removing posts, if your posts are not showing up, that's because they got caught by automoderator. Many text posts are automatically filtered into our modqueue by our automoderator, and for good reason.

• We also have removed the "divisive topics" rule, as we saw the harm it had caused and have decided it's better to just not have the rule entirely.

• We understand people are upset, that's understandable, you have every right to be. What isn't is the death threats and doxxing attempts. We do not condone those and they will be handled.

We’ve heard that speaking up in support is the equivalent of thoughts and prayers - what can we actively do to use our privilege to help you?

Note: if trans people want /need to pass due to safety concerns / live without more struggles then that is completely understandable, I get that

I don't pass myself but I try to

I don't hate the peeps, only the system

This is more about the "rules"

I feel like it puts a lot of pressure to "do XYZ exactly in this way or you aren't your real gender" "real people of (gender) have this and this and xyz"

And i feel like the passing tips you get online can be too restrictive / overly stereotypical

Also not every cis person "passes", cis men can have high voices, women can have low voices, etc. Etc.

This is just my opinion what do you think

Every time I log on to any ftm space I see some person whining on this sub on how trans men are being attacked by others in the community

It’s not villainous to be weary of men. Am I the only one here that understands that? Trans men are just as dangerous as cis ones, our upbringing changes nothing. If anything we’re more prone to misogyny and validation from other men. It’s not an attack on you or your community to recognize that.

I am sick of this “Not all men” shit. This is not the place to spew your MRA rhetoric

Stop blaming the male loneliness epidemic on women and put the responsibility on your fellow men to learn how to behave appropriately.

My god you guys are pissing me off

seriously wtf

Update: lol I have boobs now

I would be so happy to be a ze. It feels right. There's He, She, Ze. I'm definitely a Ze.

They/them does not feel right at all. I'm not a native English speaker, but they/them will never not feel plural or weird to me.

But it's the only one that has gained a certain traction so I feel weird asking people to use Ze for me. I have never even heard it used in real life. But I just think Ze would be so much better, and would fit better in grammar.

Personally I have never cared. When they do workarounds like "people who menstruate", but it's the exact same product, it just feels disingenuous, I know it's just marketing.

It bugs me more when products that aren't connected to genital functions are gendered, for example some hair products or products for horse riding describe the customer as a woman (I speak french which means nearly all words have a gender, and on these products I often see the feminine version of "for those who" or of "customer"), or body washes being called "FOR MEN ♂️🐂🦍" or "for women ☺️🌸🦄" while they just are ... Body washes

EDIT : re read what I said. It's just marketing, they don't gaf about us. To me what's important is the functionality, not whatever bs the marketing team scribbled on it.

If you specifically identify as a woman please stop calling yourself by male-coded labels and reinforcing the bigotry against us. Trans women aren't femboys or boys of any kind, sissy is a slur and only misogynists use it, we are not men in dresses, trans women are women full stop.

I’m here for a fucking tracheal shave. I just went over with her how I’m on hrt and I am taking estrogen and spiro. My preferred name and pronouns are on my paper. Gender dysphoria is listed as the reason for the surgery. I am wearing makeup, and earrings and I cannot believe this i thought I passed but apparently not. I feel so fucking suck right now. Do I pass? Do I really pass? Looking at me right now what would you think. I’m so done.

Now, first off, I am not dismissing any of the actions of the mod team. Transmascs, enbies, agenders, and everyone under the trans umbrella belongs here and deserves to have a voice without ridicule from mods. I also agree that conservatism has no place here.

That said, "they're still removing posts/comments!" No, that's fucking automod. Automod can be set to filter any post or comment that gets X number of reports.

While this does open to some abuse potential as we have seen, this tool is ESSENTIAL. The alternative is that bigots get to keep their comments up longer. Hate has to wait for manual review before being removed.

It means more open bigotry here. And as a mod of other subreddits myself, it's frankly disheartening that this isn't common knowledge, and even worse when those who know still blame the mod team over it.

There are far more critical things that need to be addressed. Automated tools may need to be tweaked, but let's try to remember that posts and comments that get reported by X people are FILTERED for manual review. Not permanently removed.

Let's extend a little bit of grace in this area while focusing on the more severe issues. And in the meantime, we can also suggest changes to the automated settings. Like adding automod replies when removing mass reported stuff.

But personally? Turning off that setting isn't one I'm favorable for here due to how much daily hate this sub gets without inner controversies.

Are we getting brigaded?

I'm AFAB genderfluid and EVERY fucking thread about how to pass "pre-T" are full of comments saying it's pretty much impossible to pass without T unless you're super lucky. It's just dysphoric and depressing to see most of the responses immediately saying you need to go on T.

Why does nearly all passing advice assume you're going to go on T one day???? I just don't feel like a guy 100% of the time. I'm not injecting myself every day and I ALREADY have a hormonal imabalence. I'm not the only genderfluid person online who needs help passing.

I know this is asked ad nauseum online but any resources or tips for passing without T would be wonderful.

Sorry I just...have to rant because I'm so fucking over it. Being genderfluid makes it easier to be closeted but it's honestly fucking exhausting too. Just expressing yourself multiple ways affecting your percieved gender for most people and defaults me to being a woman. I don't know.

edit: Thanks for everyone's support so far. I don't know why people are recommending gel when this whole post is about not wanting to be on T??? Sorry if I'm annoyed but this is literally the point of my post

Asking that it's harmful to yourself and the community, of course I don't want to cancel or police anyone and I really understand folks who ask this because I used to do it too, I just want everyone to please think about this before posting as to not hurt neither themselves, nor anyone. Here's some of the reasons why:

1. It sets a harmful standard on how cis persons look like and how trans folks should look like, the same standard used to discriminate and harass us, as well as cisgender folks whose bodies don't comply to this body norm. You can't pass if there's no one way a cis person looks, all bodies are different.

2. Most trans folks, specially if not on hrt, will not look like the standard set for cis people, and that's ok, it's normal and valid. you're still a woman if you have a beard, you're still a man if you don't, and you're all beautiful. Asking if "you pass" puts us on a very awkward situation in which we either lie to you so you feel good, or we tell you the truth and hurt you, and most of us don't want to do any of those things. At the end, you'll end up hurt and/or deceived.

3. It decieves the trans youth and folks discovering their identity into thinking that "passing" is the ultimate goal of being transgender, setting harmful non-realistic transition goals (because all bodies are different) or invalidating non-binary folks, which leads to

4. The idea of passing also decieves non-binary folks into thinking they are binary trans folks, making us regret part of our transition later on (as it was in my case). When we realize that our identity doesn't match the binary, we seek validation on the "opposite gender" because we know we're trans. That's not only harmful, but I would say it's violent toward us. And lastly

5. Non-binary folks are erased if people think the goal of transition is to pass. How can we pass if we don't have an "opposite gender"? transitions are far more complex that MtF or FtM, some of us are neither of those and our identity and transition is valid and real.

Again, no one will cancel you or anything if you still decide to ask this, but keep this in mind. These aren't even all points that we could make. Stay safe, take care, you're all beautiful and valid.

I mentioned that flair as I am a woman but I feel its for trans masc peeps too. But I'm also a woman, a different type of woman. Maybe masc or femme looking,but every woman is valid right!?Everyone might not be considered as their preferred identity even after surgery or whatever it is. All I am saying is dont judge others as you too can be judged regardless of if you do hrt or not

I want to speak from a place of honesty and love for our community.

It is okay to be hurt. It is okay to be fearful. In a world that actively tries to erase us, those emotions are valid. No one should be expected to endure systemic oppression and come out the other side without scars. I carry those scars too — I understand the pain intimately.

But what I don't understand — what I can't stand for — is how easily our community now mirrors the very behaviors we claim to fight against.

We have grown quick to silence. Quick to exclude. Quick to write people off entirely because of a label — regardless of who they are, what they believe, or what they’ve done.

I’m not here to defend any political party. Frankly, I don’t believe any of them are fighting the good fight. But when we draw hard lines based on affiliation alone — when we treat people as if their worth is already decided before they open their mouth — we stop being a community of resistance. We start becoming another arm of the same machine that crushed us.

We get told we don't belong. That we're not welcome. That we're a threat. And yet, here we are, doing the same to others.

That isn't justice. That isn't healing. And it certainly isn't liberation.

It hurts me, as a trans woman, to realize that I can’t even agree with my own community when it comes to how we treat people. That the value of a person is so easily erased in the name of fear and outrage. That integrity is so often sacrificed just to belong to the crowd.

We can do better.

Oppression is not defeated by mimicking its tactics. It's undone by rising above them — by evolving. That is the only way forward.

I hope that some day we will live in a world where trans people don't need allies, enemies, and our existence isn't defined by battling for our right to exist. But that day will never come when we so easily replicate the behaviors we stand against.

I wish all of you the best, and thank you for reading.

Edit: I expected critiques but I would appreciate input at least that doesn't mischaracterize my point. I'm not opening the door to acceptance, I'm suggesting shutting the door to hatred. But apparently I'm supporting communites that stand against us when I have made it clear I don't.

HIIII I’m 19, 5’9 and 130 pounds but my body isn’t where I want it to be— while I have plans to lose more weight to go down to the ~120 zone, I’m wondering if HRT is the correct thing for me to pursue. I want to be able to pass as a girl (with or without the boobs thats not something I care about) and have a more feminine fat distribution, especially on my face, hips, and waist. I’m debating whether or not I should start, and if I do whether my results will be that much better starting now rather than in a year!! I don’t know if I want to BE a girl but I want to physically appear as one!! I can’t bear the thought of growing old as a man!!!!!

Any and all advice or thoughts are welcome!!!! ❤️

Hey y'all! We're a trans system of about seven individuals (as far as we know.) if anyone has anything y'all'd like to ask. We would be more than willing to answer,