Battletech subreddit creator comes back after years of lurking to kick out moderators who were deleting LGBTQ+ content: 'Battletech is for everyone'

pcgamer.com:

After years of lurking quietly, original r/battletech subreddit creator ddevil63 returned to action over the weekend to shut down forum moderators who were deleting Pride-related posts and establish a new set of content rules for the subreddit based on a simple premise: «Battletech is for everyone.»

Subreddit moderators have been deleting images of mechs painted in Pride colors for some time now, according to redditor LiquidAether, but their actions went largely unnoticed. That changed when users started posting about the Battletech Pride Anthology 2023, a collection of five short stories «from LGBTQ folks for LGBTQ folks and people hoping to read more queer oriented stories set in the Battletech Universe.»

Those posts were also being deleted, but because of the anthology's higher profile, people noticed and complained—and also started to become aware of the earlier deletions. In response, the moderators acknowledged that they had been removing Pride-related posts, which they justified by invoking the subreddit's long-standing policy against the discussion of real-world politics, or current events after 1988, the year Battletech was first released. 

This did not mollify the community, which apparently took exception to the suggestion that the existence of LGBTQ people is «political,» and so the moderators doubled-down by taking the subreddit private.

Around that time, Battletech publisher Catalyst Game Labs became aware of what was going on, and created an all-new subreddit, r/OfficialBattletech, as an inclusive, CGL-sanctioned home for Battletech fans. Community and marketing director Rem Alternis said Reddit hadn't previously been one of the company's community-building priorities, but «our community had an urgent need