Reddit finally clamps down on transphobic ‘super straight’ trend after neo-Nazi links emerge
One of the various “super straight” pride flags. (Twitter/@FittehMooo)
Reddit has banned of the most prolific ‘super straight’ communities for “promoting hate”
‘Super straight’ is the new online transphobic trend that claims to refuse to date trans folk is a “sexual orientation”. It is being, in part, pushed by neo-Nazi and far-right groups on imageboard website 4chan as well as Reddit.
The forum, or “subreddit”, Super Straight, had swelled to some 30,000 members within days of its creation on 1 March.
Admins described the subreddit as: “A Community for Oppressed Men and Women that consider their Sexuality/Gender/Religion to be ‘Super Straight’.”
But Reddit, which once thrived off its hands-off approach to moderation, has now taken action and removed the SuperStraight subreddit altogether.
Clicking a link to the Super Straight subreddit now brings up a note from Reddit which states the group was banned “for promoting hate towards a marginalised or vulnerable group”.
The page adds: “The community had become increasingly exclusionary with hateful content that is counter to its original satirical intent and was in violation of our policies.”
Some LGBT+ advocates may certainly dispute whether the subreddits were created with “satire” in mind – in one shocking example of the hate spewed by the vastly anonymous users, members referred to trans people as “mutilated” and “disgusting”.
It comes amid a social media clampdown of the so-called ‘super straight’ movement, with TikTok confirming to PinkNews that it has launched an “investigation” into it and is treating it as a “hateful ideology”.
In a new transphobic TikTok trends, users are claiming that refusing to date trans people is an “orientation”. (TikTok/ kyleroyce)
TikTok both permanently banned the so-called “founder” of ‘super straight’, Kyle Royce, from the platform and blocked the hashtag #SuperStraight, a spokesperson said.
“Our community guidelines make clear that we do not tolerate hate speech or hateful ideologies, and we take action when issues are brought to our attention,” they said.
“We will continue to monitor this situation for further developments and take action wherever necessary.”
‘Super straight’ movement raised money for shelter that excludes trans women
In its crackdown on hate speech, Reddit also banned various groups adjacent to the ‘super straight’ movement.
It banned Super Lesbian, Supersexuals and Super Straights pages for “creating or repurposing a sub to reconstitute or serve the same objective as a previously banned or quarantined subreddit”, notes on the now-defunct pages read.
When not jamming people’s feeds with hate, supporters had fundraised for various causes, such as Royce’s GoFundMe or for the Vancouver Rape Relief, Canada’s longest-running rape crisis centre.
The since-removed GoFundMe for the centre, which weathered criticism for its policy of accepting only “female-born women”, raised $7,000.
“This charity does a lot of good for women, including trans women,” the page read.
“They have been viciously attacked for not allowing trans women to enter certain spaces reserved for female victims of domestic violence, which we relate to as superstraight people as a violation of consent and privacy.”
‘Super straight’ flag featured Nazi symbol
After first emerging on TikTok, the ‘super straight’ movement was electrified by alt-right trolls on 4chan and Reddit who tried to turn transphobia into a “sexuality” to traffic in hate.
Supporters “use the left’s tactics against themselves [to] call them bigots for not accepting super straights,” one 4chan user said.
The user even fashioned a super straight “pride” flag which, well, featured the SS Bolts on it – the logo of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi special police.
Mere hours before the original Super Straight board was shuttered, users were debunking “misconceptions” about the community, such as whether being ‘super straight’ is a “joke” or “makes you transphobic” (it’s not and it does not, they claim).
As much as the members have framed critics as “superphobes”, the user at one point notes: “As of 8 March 2021 there is no objective data to back up the claim that superstraights and supersexuals are oppressed.”
Well, consider us shocked.
