You guessed it, this server is for Black queer folks to relax, spread out, and be themselves. This is BlackQueerLife.

Who It's For

BlackQueerLife is meant to be a welcoming community for all Black queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people. Another way of saying this is that this space exists to house the following people: (note-these categories are not mutually exclusive and this list is not necessarily exhaustive either) Black MaGes/Black people of marginalized genders, Black folks who are marginalized due to their sexuality, Black intersex folks, Black aro/ace people, Black gender-nonconforming folks, Black people who question their sexuality and/or gender.

Black folks who are multiply marginalized (disabled Black people, fat Black people, or dark-skinned Black people for example) and cishet are also welcome here, keeping in mind that the Black queer community is centered.

How To Sign Up

When you click the create an account button, after verifying your email address, in the box that asks why you want to join, please let us know a little bit about yourself. While you do not have to share any information you don't want to, keep in mind what is written above in the Who It's For section. We will only be approving requests to join that align with that. Please allow for some time to allow us to process your application. If your application is not accepted and you don't know why, contact me using the email above. I will explain why and work with you if there was a mistake.

Guiding Principles and Moderation Practices

This is an explicitly anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, and anti-capitalist instance that subscribes to the following political philosophies: Black liberation, gender expansiveness, disability justice, fat liberation, class warfare, prison abolition, and more.

Therefore any actions taken by users that align with white supremacy, antiblackness, colorism, ableism, transmisia, misogyny, fat hate, gender binarism, or cissexism/heterosexism will be addressed. Warnings, post deletion, silencing, and suspension are all on the table when it comes to moderation.

We also proactively use blocklists. Our blocklist was originally based on the Tier 2 Blocklist, as per Oliphant's page here, although we are currently using the 40% Heat Rating list on The Bad Space as our main source going forward. We also regularly monitor the Fediblock hashtag and are in frequent communication with other server admins to keep our blocklist current and our users safe.

Additionally, we abide by the Mastodon Server Covenant. This means that we commit to the following:

-Active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia

-Daily backups

-At least one other person with emergency access to the server infrastructure

-Commitment to give users at least 3 months of advance warning in case of shutting down

Sibling Instances

These are instances whose mod/admin teams we work very closely with, given our shared vision and goals for building a safer fediverse for marginalized groups and oppressed peoples. Think of us as different houses in the same neighborhood.

These instances are as follows:

artcrimes.gay

diaspora.im

Why This Server?

Mastodon in particular and the fediverse at large can be an extremely hostile place for people like us. The safety of our community is something we take extremely seriously. As such, this server will be a place of heavy moderation. It should be noted, however, that we will federate. There are other spaces that do not federate that we can recommend for you. Those spaces are going to be more safe and more private by default.

My intention for BlackQueerLife is that when Black queers are searching for a place in the fediverse to call home, we are accessible to them. The goal is to strike that challenging balance between safety for current users and being accessible to new users. This is far from an easy task, and should events force the server to temporarily close to new signups you will be notified. If we grow to the point where taking on more members is no longer feasible permanently, you will also be notified of this change.

I do not believe that our community should be forced to choose between making a home on an instance that centers whiteness and making a home on an instance that is closed off from the rest of fedi. I believe that our community should have options that federate and those that don't.

Best Practices For Accessibility

Some of our users are disabled (For example, 1 in 4 Black American adults), and to make sure that everyone is provided with the tools they need to participate fully in our community, here are some collective habits that we should adopt:

• Alt-text your images. If you are not in a position to do so, please use #AltTextHelp and someone from the community should be able to help and provide it. Another tag you can use,#ALT4me, lets you ask for an alt text for your image and #ALT4you or #ALT4U can be used in the comments to indicate to the OP that you've written an ALT text for them to add to their image
• Avoid using too many emojis in a row. Example: putting 3 smiley faces in a row, or 60 red flags. Screen readers do not handle them well
• Use PascalCase for the hashtags. Example: #BlackQueerLife
• When sharing a link, provide a brief description of where the link directs to
• Use captions in uploaded videos

(These best practices were inspired by disabled.social. Thanks!)

Server Details

This server is running Glitch-soc, a fork of Mastodon, using the managed hosting provider, Fedi Monster. You can see more information by going to their page, but daily backups and regular updates are included.

If you would like to support our server, we are partnered with Open Collective. You can find our donation page here!

The instance is currently run by one admin and two moderators. Our team regularly collaborates on making decisions for the server. Our moderators are also compensated for their labor. For the time being, we are not looking to expand our mod team.

1. No white supremacy, antiblackness, colorism, transmisia, cisheterosexism, ableism, misogyny, fat hate, or gender binarism
2. Do not share information you know to be false or misleading
3. NSFW content is cool, just mark it sensitive and use a content warning
4. You must be at least 18 years old to have an account here

1. anarchist.au: sospensione
2. city17.makura.top: sospensione
3. emeraldsocial.org: sospensione
4. mastodon.dragoncave.dev: sospensione
5. social.cutiecluster.cc: sospensione
6. social.digital-artifacts.net: sospensione