A number of users have made their way here from other instances; we welcome everyone, and I thought I would take the time to offer a clear vision as to what lib.lgbt is, why I created it, and what you can expect from participating in this community.
What is lib dot lgbt about?
We are primarily and firstly a space for queer people (and queer-adjacent people, including family and allies of all stripes). This means we are also inherently "political" in the sense that the existence of queer people is intrinsically political these days. While this reality kind of sucks, I didn't make the world this way; all we can do is live in it as best we can.
To me, all political considerations other than queerness are secondary. As long as your political philosophy aligns with queer liberation, you are welcome here.
The core tenet of all our users should be "everyone should be included and in every way possible." Let's take a practical example: the common troll debate topic of the inclusion of trans people in sports. Well, here, there's no debate. Everyone should be included in every way possible. Including trans people in a sporting league is, to us, as uncontroversial and proper as including Black people or Jewish people.
Failure to adhere to this assumption, or questioning the legitimacy or stability of queer identities, or "just asking questions," or wanting to debate queer people in the free marketplace of ideas, or whining about how the existence of this instance (or its moderation) is curtailing your freedom of speech, will result in scorn, opprobrium, and banning -- not necessarily in that order.
Why lib dot lgbt?
I created this instance as I fled from reddit. I love supporting queer people and debating politics, and was hoping to replace that in my life.
I initially applied to Beehaw and have nothing but love and respect for Beehaw and its mission. I wanted a space whose reason for existence was to serve and connect queer people of all flavors. Beehaw is not (and should not be) that.
This place is that.
Where is lib dot lgbt hosted?
From a purely utilitarian standpoint, this instance is on a pretty solid hosting provider (fly.io) and I expect very little downtime. While this is obviously just a passion project for me, lib.lgbt is not hosted in my living room but in a highly available cloud datacenter; the costs for this number of users are very low and I am happy to foot them.
You may depend on the reliability and stability of this instance and this community.
Who do we federate with?
We're not interested in federating with instances that allow debate on the question of queer identities. Thus, instances that willingly host content like The_Donald, anything TERF-related, and "free speech" bastions are prime candidates for disfederation.
In the end, though, I'd love to hear from you all! What kind of community should this be? What communities should we make here? I hope you all feel welcome, and if there are any questions about any of the above, please don't hesitate to let me know.