Ungendering and a Lack of Respect

[TheUser]

I am not dom4tg and I do not know him at all. I'm simply expressing my opinion after having read through the thread. And seeing how you handled dom4tg, I fully expect to be banned for dissenting. You can hide behind all the justifications you want and deflect any points about the real argument here, but at the end of the day all you're doing is failing to face facts and conducting a biased, extremely unfair forum.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TheUser

I am not dom4tg and I do not know him at all. I'm simply expressing my opinion after having read through the thread. And seeing how you handled dom4tg, I fully expect to be banned for dissenting. You can hide behind all the justifications you want and deflect any points about the real argument here, but at the end of the day all you're doing is failing to face facts and conducting a biased, extremely unfair forum.

All you have done is demonstrate that either you do not read completely or you simply want to be here to pick a fight. It's notable that despite your accusation that I hid behind justifications deflected points, you didn't really address the substance of my response. Your initial post, however, has been dealt with again and again in this thread that you claim to have read (assumedly, either not as thoroughly as you might have us believe OR with a focus only on the posts with which you agree).

You will not be banned for expressing your opinion in a discussion. You may be banned for ungendering, should it happen (which I do not anticipate) and if a warning does not suffice to put an end to it. It's as simple as that.

dom4tg asked to leave. You do not know all the facts. It was made simple for him. PMs were exchanged as well.

This IS a "biased" forum. It is extremely biased. We have decided that despite all the porn, our discussions will be respectful of transpeople, and that words matter in this. We take it seriously. We take seriously when someone posts a self-identified woman in the crossdresser thread, no less than we take seriously when someone writes that one of our transmembers is not a "real woman."

It is a privilege, not a right, to be a member of this site. The bottom-line question for me to you is this: Are you here to argue about rules that you don't have to live by -- because you can just choose not to participate if you don't like the way this PRIVATE site is set up? Or are you here to make a positive contribution in some way?

My own observation is that these members that smc has banned and others like them simply come in here looking for trouble—like they do all over the Internet. They claim that the moderators are “picking on” them or whatever but then at the same time they want to be able to insult anyone that they choose.

As many others have pointed out this is a “private” forum with rules. One is to be respectful of other members. It amazes me that any member would want to use derogatory language toward someone that they, by becoming a member here, would claim to admire.

The use of demeaning language towards any group is one step towards not seeing them as individuals, maybe not seeing them as human beings, and then maybe thinking that perhaps discrimination or violence towards them is OK. Unfortunately, history is filled with far too many examples of this.
Violence towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals is very real.

smc is a personal friend of mine outside this forum and I think he does an excellent job of moderating this place. Trying to balance the “porn” aspect of this forum with the serious discussion of social issues is a daunting task. But I guess sometimes smc isn’t “totalitarian and insanely hypocritical” enough.