If you haven’t heard, Ravelry recently made waves by banning anything that shows support for Trump or his administration. Announcement here.
It’s all over the news – NY Times, NPR, CNN, and the Washington Post all have articles detailing what is known about the decision. But an interesting backstory has come up on Reddit – it was death threats by Trump supporters to an anti-Trump designer.
Reddit user FrostYarn posted:
“Correct – the “designer” was named Deplorableknitter and when she released the Build the Wall pattern in January, my friend Bridget @drawfourdesigns and I collaborated on a “Fuck Your Wall” pattern in response. Also did a Chinga Tu Muro and a Mind your Beckys, and I ponied up the cash for yarn kits and pins, 100٪ of sales going to RAICES Texas. We raised $979 for legal representation and shelter for migrants at the border to be brought in legally and housed while their cases were in court.
Casey [one of Ravelry’s founders] censored her pattern but not ours, so both Bridget and I got a lot of threats and hate for that. When I made the donation to RAICES, I made it in deplorableknitter’s name and had the thank you email sent to her. Petty, I know.
It’s good to see that she kept it up long enough to get herself and a massive chunk of problem accounts banned and a policy change.
Proof: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fuck-your-wall“
Some of the backlash across the knitting community is that this message isn’t enough for the PoC/LGBT/other minorities that are a part of the community. Others point out that banning a political movement isn’t fair either – websites should remain apolitical.
The flip side is that this is one of the first real steps that an online community has taken to stop the spread of hate. Many people agree that being LGBT/PoC is inherently a political issue in our social climate, so supporting these groups is a political statement.
While this may be a baby step in the right direction, I’m proud that one of the major players in the knitting community is taking a stand against hate. #ISupportRavelry
UPDATE! Steven Colbert did a bit on it!