In 2020 when everything shut down, I was stuck at home like many others and decided to check out some lgbt spaces and meet more queer folk. I ended up joining a partnered discord server and just started chatting there - some fine folk and ended up making friends and meeting up with some of them irl. During my time there, I had caught the eye of the server owner who DM'd me asking why I haven't applied to be a mod yet. I laughed it off, because of the "discord mod" memes and I didn't really want to be lumped in with that. They implored me to just give it a shot and see so I did. Wasn't much else to do irl while I waited for work to open back up.
Someone on the "mod team" was actually one of the heads of Trust & Safety at discord and after her and I chatted a bit, she invited me to the "Discord Moderator Discord" which was described to me as being the best of the best - staff, teachers, researchers, people who actively work to make things better. I appreciate how this server was curated, because it was a lot more than the stereotypical discord mod memes of "Don't post memes in general!" lol, so I was fine being in there. Because of the DMD and my role in that queer server, I ended up partnering directly with discord to run events to raise money for charity (Raised tens of thousands for the International Railroad for Queer Refugees), develop systems to protect queer users on the platform, writing articles for discord, and had people paying me for interviews to feature me in some scientific journals at various universities.
The downside to this is I was the face of quite a few servers ranging from 30k users to 750k. My DMs were flooded by bad actors and bigots sending all types of hate that you can imagine - gore, cp, threats, private investigating me and my family, etc. It was bad enough that discord staff knew and reached out to give my account access to an experimental report feature to get rid of these accounts faster. I told myself and my friends that I was fine with it. If I had to get the brunt of the abuse so that other users were safe, then that's what's important. The harassment would ramp up around June so I unfortunately ended up growing more of a disdain for Pride. I mean, after all, despite being paid I was doing this of my own volition on a volunteer basis.
But after a few years of Pride, events, and balancing my regular career with discord stuff on the side, I moved away from it. Discord thanked me and sent me some limited merch, money, and a special lil badge for my account, but those feelings for pride lingered for a few years. Now 6 years later, I don't feel the same scorn as I once did. I love seeing new queers celebrate Pride for the first time. And despite there always being ne'er-do-wells around and what garbage they may spew - you are valid and you are seen. You are as deserving of love and care as any allocishet person out there and no one can take that away. Happy Pride to my fellow queer friends.
