This started as a Pride month post.

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This started as a Pride month post.

Then last week happened.

I struggle to find the words to express the deep exhaustion and frustration shared amongst peers as so much is rapidly sliding backward, as we struggle to find purpose in a world growing in its hatred toward us and toward our most vulnerable. Part of me understands the responsibility of representing Pride, LGBTQ+ identities, and inclusion. Especially right now. But it's scary how hard it is to feel safe and how easy it is to stay small, keep quiet, and just hide.

Being out, proud, and visible is complicated. The rising increase of anti-trans bills. Don’t say gay. Denying or restricting life-affirming care for children. Aligning queerness with grooming kids. Measures focused on controlling, scaring, and humiliating trans kids (or anyone who doesn’t fit someone else’s ideas of what is masculine or feminine enough). Active harm and alienation directed toward trans children. The constant emphasis on the risks to kids from gay boogiemen while children are still being murdered in classrooms by actual monsters with guns. And through all of this, power structures that are unwilling to instill any significant preventative change are standing idly by, scanning the horizon for scapegoats, seemingly oblivious to the homegrown terrorism that has made its way into nearly every facet of our culture in order to normalize itself.

This started as a Pride month post about how attacks on queerness are canaries in coal mines for broader issues, how we must always remember that Pride started not as a celebration, but as resistance.

White supremacy grows more confident every day, nurtured by 4chan and gamergate, then given wings by the previous (and current) administration. It constantly and consistently pummels us with atrocities until we cannot escape an environment overflowing with horrible things, too many to keep track and fight back against them all. It's a system designed to shut us down by desensitizing us to the onslaught and by moving the goalposts of what state-sanctioned inhumanities toward others we're willing to tolerate. It's a system of control over the marginalized and different, of control over those who have always had to fight to maintain their autonomy under systemic oppression. The overturning of Roe v. Wade hits a far wider swath of us than the attacks on BLM and LGBTQ+ rights combined and sets a precedent for a far more troubling future.

This started as a Pride month post about why we weren’t going to do any of the usual “queerness in games” episodes that usually come up during Pride. We’ve done plenty of those already, and that kind of isolated and tokenized treatment simply isn’t as applicable or appropriate anymore. We'd rather have discussions throughout the year as part of our regular normalizing discourse instead of tucking it conveniently away and compartmentalizing it to “the gay month." We are not interested in prioritizing other people's discomfort while sidelining queerness to stay small, keep quiet, and hide during the rest of the year.

It has become increasingly clear that a neutral stance (or a lack of any stance at all) is in itself a statement, and one we are not interested in aligning with anymore. It is past time for us to be clear:

Those of us behind Gamers With Jobs believe that Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, climate change/science is real, and accessibility/healthcare are human rights. We are pro-choice, for more gun control, and believe in police abolition/reform. We support indigenous rights and the plight of MMIW and children. We strive to be feminist and anti-racist, and choose to embrace the socialist ideals of community over company and people over profits.

Though games allow all of us to get away from the world from time to time, that does not absolve us as an organization from being uninvolved in what’s happening in the rest world. Remaining neutral is no longer a reflection of who we are or what we stand for.

Happy Pride. Never stop fighting.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
https://translifeline.org/
https://colorofchange.org/
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/
https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/
https://teafund.org/

Comments

3or4monsters wrote:
Aristophan wrote:
trichy wrote:
mudbunny wrote:
Moggy wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:
Those of us behind Gamers With Jobs believe that Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, climate change/science is real, and healthcare is a human right. We are pro-choice, for more gun control, and believe in police abolition/reform. We support indigenous rights and the plight of MMIW and children. We strive to be feminist and anti-racist, and choose to embrace the socialist ideals of community over company and people over profits.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

Forlorn Hope wrote:
3or4monsters wrote:
Aristophan wrote:
trichy wrote:
mudbunny wrote:
Moggy wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:
Those of us behind Gamers With Jobs believe that Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, climate change/science is real, and healthcare is a human right. We are pro-choice, for more gun control, and believe in police abolition/reform. We support indigenous rights and the plight of MMIW and children. We strive to be feminist and anti-racist, and choose to embrace the socialist ideals of community over company and people over profits.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

(I sit, actually. I am a gamer, afterall.)

This is the way.

So say we all.

Shiny.

And my axe!

All I'm asking is that we take the boot off their necks.

I am not a Christian; However, I do have a story about a church I attended in North Carolina which decided to take a stand and has some similarities.

They were inclusive and as non-doctrinal as possible before their decision - sticking with "God's love of all" and loving in the way Christ loved others rather than being a believer in a story. However, over time any attempt to walk atop the razor thin edge of "inclusive to all" is going to encounter a weak point and divide you. Their tests arrived in the guise of a request for a same-sex marriage ceremony, and a non-binary person (who was more outwardly obvious) wanting to volunteer inside the church.

In the end they decided to stand as wholly affirming of the LGBTQIA+ community. This is their story, as told by the lead pastor. It isn't perfect, but it lays bare a lot of the journey including his fears, his former assumptions, the conflicts they went through, and the consequences they've faced both good and bad.

Their journey has not been easy and continues to be difficult, but how could it be otherwise when one chooses to walk along side people who face the worst humanity has to offer on a daily basis? Sharing some amount of their pain must come with that.

I don’t think i’ve ever posted in this section of the forums, but I have to add my voice in support of this statement. Thank you for putting these feelings into words!

Well said

Absolutely love seeing this on the front page and completely agree with everything being said. Well done, Amoebic. As others have said, this community played a very large part in making me a better person and for that I will be forever grateful.

...well, I guess love is not really the right word due to the circumstances that it needed to be said, but I think you understand what I'm getting at

Thank you, Amoebic and GWJ.

I stand with this statement.

Just saw this.

Happy to state my agreement with this as well.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/Ld77zD3fF3Run8olIt/giphy.gif)

I stand with these statements and this crew.

IMAGE(https://y.yarn.co/df8631ec-0cf2-4f43-a32c-7dd59207525a_text.gif)

IMAGE(https://media2.giphy.com/media/8rrtLIv89I24g/giphy.webp?cid=6c09b95252483e62e310518891691d497d39eb8bebfa07c1&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g)

IMAGE( https://media.giphy.com/media/Y0lc6ALjtOg0w/giphy.gif)

All things I can agree with.

100%

Hell yea. Proud to be a member of this community.

Well done.

I stand with you and GWJ!

Jolly Bill wrote:

Well said. This community has grown and changed just as I have over the last 16.5 years since I joined (!?) and it has had an incredible influence on my life. I am determined to stand alongside my friends, online and irl, in support and in defense of those whose rights and safety are constantly under attack.

Amen to all of this.

Followup: Read the statement out loud to my spouse. Tears.
We hope this place is still around once it's time to introduce our kids to online communities.

Thanks for this and well said, meebs. I know I’m not active around here that much these days, but it’s good to get a reminder of what a wonderful place and community this is, and the work that’s gone into it. I was a very different person back 15 years ago when I first came here, and it’s so rare and special to have a place online that feels like it’s grown and learned and changed alongside that, even as the world around is a struggle. Love you all.

Very tired, but I am with this fight. I am sad I don't do any real active work on a regular basis. Just so emotionally tired.

From Stonewall a brick, from GWJ a pixelated pickaxe.

It's amazing how powerful putting words into writing can be, isn't it?

I've been a member drifting in and out of the community for eleven year. I've always considered this a safe and inclusive online community. It's nice to see direct affirmation of that.

Thank you

Haven't been paying as much attention to the front page but wanted to say this is beautifully written. Big virtual hugs to you Amoebic!

Agreed.

Mixolyde wrote:
Forlorn Hope wrote:
3or4monsters wrote:
Aristophan wrote:
trichy wrote:
mudbunny wrote:
Moggy wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:
Those of us behind Gamers With Jobs believe that Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, climate change/science is real, and healthcare is a human right. We are pro-choice, for more gun control, and believe in police abolition/reform. We support indigenous rights and the plight of MMIW and children. We strive to be feminist and anti-racist, and choose to embrace the socialist ideals of community over company and people over profits.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

I stand with this statement.

Well said. Great post.

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/718534523868020738/993687034352906311/1656618662122-nitw-top.jpeg)

Those of us behind Gamers With Jobs believe that Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, climate change/science is real, and accessibility/healthcare are human rights. We are pro-choice, for more gun control, and believe in police abolition/reform. We support indigenous rights and the plight of MMIW and children. We strive to be feminist and anti-racist, and choose to embrace the socialist ideals of community over company and people over profits.

In a world where it seems society is constantly clouding and pushing to uncertainty and murky greys of morality, and it's lack; the possibility to express ideas that are very much right (and alternatively very much wrong) still exists. This statement above is very much right.

I stand with this statement.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/XjdCugO.jpg)

The only flag this house will fly for the foreseeable future.

EDIT: Okay, maybe we'd also fly one of those cool Rainbow Bear Republic flags too, but you get the point.

Well done, Amoebic, for not only finding the words, and the strength of character, but for coalescing these with such tact.

Whilst I've been absent for a time, and at other moments on the periphery, I remain thankful for finding this community, which has without doubt shaped my existence and that which I choose to put out into the world for the better.

Keep up the good fight.