Kulturkampf

[Alpacx]

Reddit Moment Part II:
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/00fxM8QjmV

Statement: thread on the Scottish FA ban of transgender footballers, and subsequent brigading.
Announcement

We would like to issue the following statement, to clarify an incident earlier today in the subreddit.

A article regarding the news that the Scottish FA have banned transgender footballers was posted to r/soccer earlier today.

Threads on trans issues have increasingly become volatile in this community and others, and well recognised as breeding grounds for hate and abuse, in contravenence of our community rules.

Furthermore, these threads are frequently the subject of brigading from outside sources - which violates the sitewide rules.

When possible we strive to keep these threads unlocked, as we welcome discussion that is in good faith and within our rules. If threads degenerate to the point where this is not realistic, they are locked. In general, we would prefer to trust our community in the first instance.

This policy was applied to this thread.

In response to a succession of comments purporting a rhetoric that is well recognised as a dog whistle of transphobia, a moderator of this subreddit stickied a comment to clarify how these comments would be moderated.

Then, this comment was linked to a subreddit that is known to actively stoke hateful brigades, in persecution of individuals with protected characteristics.

Subsequently this occurred. As such, we have removed the thread in its entirety and reported this action to the admins.

The moderator in question has since been subjected to repeated discriminatory abuse that not only violates the community and website rules, but also any metric of moral decency that our humanity is defined by.

We would like to reiterate our support of the moderator in question, and of the LGBTQ+ community in r/soccer, football, and society at large.

This subreddit has a zero tolerance approach to hate - and that will remain the case.

Now is not the time to bow down, to defer, and to allow these malevolent forces to cast blame on those they wish to persecute.

r/soccer stands with our trans friends