Saying Nothing About LGBTQ+ Support Isn't Neutral. We Learned That the Hard Way.
A community member sent us an email. They loved KDCC. But they couldn't tell if we were LGBTQ+ friendly. No hate. No drama. Just a question we didn't realize we'd never answered. Turns out, saying nothing is still saying something. Here's what we did about it. 🏳️🌈
Two months ago, we got an email from a concerned member of our community. They wrote about how even though they love the KDCC and enjoyed being here, they couldn't tell where we stood when it comes to LGBTQ+ support. They didn't see anything overtly negative about the KDCC brand, but there was an absence of anything clearly positive.
One of our community rule is to follow The Golden Rule. Treat others as you wish to be treated. We've always made sure any messages containing hate speech or discrimination is deleted and the user removed from the server.
Andrew Kan and I, Ike Do, are both supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and we want to make sure our community is a safe space. Andrew and I once had a talk about whether we should be upfront about our stance on the LGTBQ+ side of things... and we chose not to because of a simple reason.
We didn't want to look like we were pandering. We didn't want to appear like other companies that say they support the LGBTQ+ because it's profitable, and then a month later they don't mention it at all.
So we enforced The Golden Rule as we always do, but we were unaware that inaction is in fact an action. While we know that we've been able to keep our community a safe space, this email from a concerned KDCC member made the obvious... painfully obvious.
We never actually made it a public knowledge.
In a world where your rights depends heavily on where you live, whether you fit into the heteronormative code, and your gender, just knowing that the shop you go to, the club that you attend, or your local restaurant are LGBTQ+ friendly is like a lighthouse in a thunderstorm.
We got working on this immediately.
We added it to our Discord traits, updated our community rules, added a new rainbowheart emoji, and reinforced it in our Code of Ethics.
It doesn't take a lot of effort to showcase what you believe in, but it can mean the world to others.
The power of a brand logo.
42 days after we made our changes, our nightmare of being seen as pandering became a reality with yet another email from a concerned member. However, it taught us an important lesson.
In their email, they expressed frustration in the KDCC branding and messaging choices—particularly the rainbow heart emoji—and how that left them feeling alienated and disappointed.
Here's a real quote from the email that we found mind-boggling: "I don't want a safe space, I want a YOUTUBE space, stop bringing politics into my community."
Despite them telling us to stop bringing politics, they immediately asked where was the American flag of the KDCC logo or the thin blue line heart logo. It was clear that this user only wanted alignments that they agreed of.
Needless to say we banned them from our e-mail, if we knew who this person was in our Discord community, they would've already been banned.
If you've ever thought about how people wouldn't pay attention to your brand or image, we want you to take this to heart. It only took a month after the small changes we made to our community for someone to realize, and it got them so riled up that they had to write us an email.
You set the tone in your community.
You can choose how to go with cultivating your community, whether you take an active role in it or not. One way gives you the ability to shape your community, while the other allow your community to develop themselves.
The latter can be risky. A single bad actor (whether they're an active member or a moderator in your community) can change the course of your community. It might even happen over time, and by the time you realize, it might be too late.
I go over this, along with how to build a community from scratch down below 👇
Ike
