Online Harassment

One of the things I struggle with is wanting to be more social in general. This includes actually sharing work I’ve done creatively as well as just existing on platforms like Twitter.

So far I’ve found that if I stay to my own corner I am safe but if I make a comment on an account that I am opening up to a lot of transphobia.

Case in point, I do like baseball and the other night I saw that the Houston Astros were playing. For those unfamiliar, the Astros were found to be cheating during the 2017 season. We didn’t find out about it until last fall though and with there being no baseball going on, fans of other teams never got to say anything about it.

I left this comment, yes it’s trolling a little, but I did think nothing more of it than some friendly trash talking. What I got though was multiple accounts personally insulting me for being trans.

I included these screenshots of comments and they do have my responses on them. Even if you think that the initial comment was immature or provoked a response, similar other comments were made with no responses at all.

And it’s not just me that gets this when I am trolling online but I did a tik tok video and almost all of the comments were transphobic.

And it’s not just me, other trans women are harassed online all the time.

Look at these comments towards Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, who has been one person leading the state through the Coronavirus pandemic.

Or look at the comments directed at Valentina Sampaio, the first trans woman to ever be included in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

Why does this matter? In a world that has become increasingly digital, feeling free and safe online is something that shouldn’t be so hard. Yes, there are always haters but this type of abuse is the real censorship.

For many people transitioning the world outside of our homes (if we even have permanent housing) feels unsafe. Over the years we’ve also seen that a portion of the internet is also unsafe.

It shouldn’t be that way.