Update: Former Limited Run Games community manager Kara Lynne has taken to Twitter (or, to be more specific, TwitLonger) in order to share her side of the Limited Run story. Lynne says that her dismissal came "out of left field", and that she had never been internally reprimanded or written up prior to her termination, nor did she "abuse [her] power or personal opinions on the various social channels".
Lynne goes on to say that she "truly believe[s] that everyone has the right to love who they want to love", but that she hesitates "when children get involved". She says that although she doesn't believe she's hurt the trans or LGBTQ+ communities, anyone who does believe that "[has] the right to that opinion". You can read Lynne's full response to the Limited Run situation, where she also discusses what she plans to do next, right here. Original story follows below.
Original story: Physical game publisher Limited Run Games has apparently fired its community manager over a series of transphobic tweets discovered on her timeline, as well as a number of right-wing and transphobic accounts in her following list. The decision was made, according to Limited Run, in order to foster a "positive and safe environment" for everyone, and to support inclusivity.
It began when community manager Kara Lynne, also known as Kara Gooch, made comments about being excited to play the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy, a game that is surrounded in controversy owing to the transphobic views of Harry Potter author JK Rowling (and also to viewpoints espoused by ex-lead designer Troy Leavitt, who has since left the company).
Following this, Twitter user Purple Tinker (who has since deleted their account) described Lynne as "a transphobe" with several known right-wing and transphobic accounts on the list of accounts she follows on Twitter, including Ben Shapiro, Libs of TikTok, and others.
Purple Tinker pointed to several tweets made by Lynne in the past, including one in which she says "if you think the # of trans crying about using a bathroom is higher than the perves [sic] using the excuse, you are what is wrong with this world". Lynne has since made her Twitter account private, so it's not possible to see any of the tweets she made.
On the same day of Purple Tinker's tweet, Limited Run tweeted that it had "investigat[ed] a situation" and that an employee had been "terminated". This decision, Limited Run said, was made in order to "[support] an inclusive culture" and "foster a positive and safe environment for everyone".
Limited Run doesn't specifically name Lynne in its tweet, but it's almost certainly referring to her. Lynne's husband, Jeremy Gooch, subsequently tweeted that Limited Run "fired a faithful and hardworking employee" in order to "satisfy a few woke people", tagging several figures in his tweet including right-wing YouTuber The Quartering and JK Rowling herself. Again, Gooch doesn't specifically name Kara in his tweet, but it's hard to imagine he's not talking about her.
This is far from the first instance of transphobia in the gaming industry. In September last year, gladiator sim Domina was removed from Steam after its developer went on a transphobic rant, and a re-released version of Grand Theft Auto V was scrubbed of transphobic elements after LGBTQIA+ gamers called for Rockstar to remove the offending material.
We contacted Limited Run Games for comment on this story, but they didn't respond to us in time for publication.
