Long story short, some college roommates in room 195 started /r/195 on Reddit. The only rule was that you had to post a meme before leaving. Then the general public found it, and it grew as it started to hit /All.
But with that growth came the bigots, the racists, the nazis, etc… So eventually the /r/195 sub was quarantined. But people still liked the idea, so someone started 196 as a sort of sequel to the original. A little more moderation, and they let the bigots and racists stay on 195 so 196 could become the opposite of that. It was more heavily moderated with the hateful shit getting removed, so it quickly grew to be known as a trans-friendly sub.
And now this 196 is essentially a clone of that same idea. This announcement isn’t anything surprising once you know how 195 devolved, because the lack of moderation on 195 basically meant that the bigots were able to brigade anything that wasn’t also bigoted.