Reddit is going crazy over a rainbow castle built in Minecraft.
Recently, the Gay Games in Hong Kong announced the inclusion of esports to its roster of competitions. I argued that the announcement made sense as LGBTQ visibility in games and in gamers has been increasing in the past few years. And now, a viral photo of a gamer supporting his gay friend is adding to the conversation.
One of the biggest posts in the gaming and gay sides of social media site Reddit is about a gamer wanting to support his gay friend. The post has even gotten 38.8K upvotes and 1.5K comments in the past few days. In the post, the redditor wrote:
“My friend that I have played Xbox with for many years recently came out as gay and got a lot of backlash from his family, to show my support I did this to our castle in Minecraft. Many hours and duplications later it was finished.”
The original poster then shared the above photo of a castle he’d built in the building/survival game Minecraft. The castle is decorated with rainbow flags at its peaks, rainbow posters on its walls, and a few rainbows shooting up into the sky above it.
Many commenters to the post shared how the picture and structure itself are an absolute show of friendship and solidarity. Or as one redditor simply puts, “Bro move, bro.”
One other commenter, however, put a little more effort into his or her response by saying, “If you put the time into doing this with him, to support him in who he is, you’re his real family.”
Another commenter shared how touched he or she was by the act, especially given their own personal circumstance.
“Just whoa!” wrote the commenter. “I recently had my son come out and recently understood the impact stuff like this has on people. You my friend are a good person have a blessed life!”
Then, one redditor commented on the power of friendships found through gaming.
“The friendships made through video games are something that non-gamers will never be able to fully understand,” the redditor wrote. “I’ve met so many incredible people over the years and I wish I would have kept in touch with a lot of them after our gaming days ended. Always keep in touch with your buddy! You’re a great friend for him to have.”
The original poster responded and agreed by saying, “I speak to my online friend daily and our bond is closer than some of my real life friends.”
The original poster then confessed that he was the first person his online buddy came out to.
“It was me first and then he told them a few hours later. He then sent me a message saying how they hate him for it so that’s when I started getting to work with this to make him feel accepted.”
But how did the friend take it? What was the friend’s reaction to this great show of support and friendship? Well, as the original poster informed the world later:
“My friend came online and he saw the castle!”
“He said that it means the world to him, I could hear in his voice that he wanted to cry. We are now going to build another base and have fun.”
What a great show of friendship and gaming. We’re glad to see it.
Nice friend.