#these conflicts are Layered and can't always be handled with blanket rules b/c of VAST situational/person variance but I am So Tired

[tzalmavet]

@mewtation replied to your post “It’s wild to see how little distance tumblr lingo...”:

gonna be honest, I've been here since 2012 and I don't know what REG is

​Fair, I guess you had to be reading certain kinds of discourse blogs to really see it in even semi-regular use 😅

“REG” is an acronym for “Reactionary Exclusionist Gatekeeper”... it’s a little hard to nail down its exact meaning (it’s kind of exactly what it sounds like), but I tend to recall and use it like it’s an umbrella term for those assholes who shift gears every two or so years in the LGBT+ community to aim vitriol and blame for their oppression at a different specific identity.

The most common and persistent kind of REGs are truscum/transmedicalists, and some of the first targets for REGs were nonbinary people, bisexuals, and gays who weren’t “gold star”.  The truscum-tucute fights and rise of “MOGAI” and its opponents around the mid-20teens were about when “REG” was coined, and when it was most used.  A few years later, aromantics and asexuals would be a huge target (and the aroace spectrum community has still not fully recovered from that time period) for REG type people. In current times, the targets of REGs are mostly trans men, transmascs, CAFAB nonbinary people (pretty much anyone who gets branded a “transandrophobia truther”...), and pansexuals, with a little leftover hate for ace/aro-spec people just to be mean; but every REG-targeted group always retains a little hostility from some REGs.  It’s just harder to hear about now since the partial death of Discourse/Callout Blogging and since tumblr’s search functionality for controversial topics has gotten even worse.

I think “REG” should come back into use b/c it refers to a very specific kind of LGBT+ community traitor/boat-rocker while still being broad enough to be an umbrella term that covers many different manifestations of that brand of extremely frustrating intracommunity squabble... ex. nonbinary-hating transmeds and psyop-spreading lesbian TERFs are the iconic REGs, but a vehement anti-asexual anti-pansexual blogger who supports nonbinary genders is also a REG.