Ally Kotetsu

There are many news sources online, I am sure we are all familiar with the likes of FOX News and CNN. Bigger news publishers like these tend to focus on the biggest headlines, but when it comes to smaller communities that need the spotlight just as much as big ones, what about smaller publishers?

The Daily Dot is a Texas-based news organization that has been around since 2011, and since then it's been delivering news on a slew of content, especially as it relates to the internet and its culture. An interesting thing about it, I've noticed, is that they've made multiple articles covering radqueer topics in a neutral light.

Sometimes I search my name up to see just what Google or other engines have indexed about me, and a while ago I noticed that I came up in an article about Race Change To Another by Daily Dot. This is because I used to moderate the r/Transracial community on Reddit, and, at the height of TikTok's RCTA “trend”, Daily Dot took a look at the Reddit community (despite it being less RCTA focused) to see what the commotion was about, to provide an alternate perspective than just what people were doing on TikTok to get likes. Daily Dot even went as far as to interview surgeons to get their opinions on how transrace folks might transition to be closer to their desired race.

Facial plastic surgeons the Daily Dot interviewed all agreed that subliminals and manifestations cannot change your appearance. Instead, they recommend surgery or other cosmetic procedures to change one’s looks to more closely resemble that of the desired race.

“I’m unconfident about the effectiveness of these practices in changing facial features,” one surgeon said. “I recommend visiting an expert and consulting them about possible solutions…helping you feel good about yourself is our job after all.”

None of the surgeons wanted to be named due to the controversy surrounding RCTA.

The article even comes to the defense of Rachel Dolezal, a transblack woman who was outed by her parents after confusion of her “real” race up.

This by itself is awesome, there are allies of transrace out there, I have met a few myself, but what if I told you this wasn't the only radqueer thing that another Daily Dot journalist has written about? The Daily Dot has also written about the Otherkin community, one that has been notable a lot longer than transrace has been.

Otherkin are the internet’s punchline. They’re also our future. As our understanding of identity and bodies changes, otherkin are at the center of the fight.

The article mentions plurality and otherkinity in the same sentences as “queer”, “transfem”, and “polyamorous”. A description I think a lot of us in this community can relate to. It doesn't outright call any of the “radqueer” but it gets pretty close:

And the radical queer spaces they hang out in online have been nothing but accepting, in part because these communities are “unapologetic weirdqueer,” or queer communities that radically challenge what it means to have an identity.

This may be the only time I have ever heard the term “radical queer” used in a professionally journalistic context.

So sure, the Daily Dot doesn't come out in support of pedophilia (unless there's another article I haven't read) and it doesn't show transage flags quoting “transage rights!”, but it has multiple articles by different authors showing positive lights into different parts of the radqueer community, as recent as less than a year ago.

If ever there was a doubt that our community is growing and becoming more accepted, I hope that should be diminishing. The more people write about us in good faith like this, the more people will try to understand us. I've met many people in real life who accept parts of if not all of my identity. Radqueer is here to stay, and we've got to keep having pride online so that good people will find out and spread our message.

The articles mentioned: * https://www.dailydot.com/news/race-change-to-another/ * https://www.dailydot.com/irl/otherkin/