Three game studios in North Carolina have come out against North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill”, a law seen by many as infringing on the rights of transgender individuals.
The law, formally titled House Bill 2, bans individuals from entering a gendered bathroom different from what’s listed on their birth certificate, supposedly due to the need to protect kids. The law has been slammed by everyone from Hilary Clinton to Donald Trump and spurred a massive backlash from major businesses, including PayPal, which cancelled plans for an operations centre in the state, which could have employed up to 400 people.
The Department of Justice is suing North Carolina over the law, saying it is a violation of civil rights. The state’s Governor Pat McCrory is suing back.
As for the many game developers in the state, North Carolina’s most famous game developer, Gears of War lead creator Cliff Bleszinski, tagged McCrory in a tweet this past weekend. As is usually the case with Bleszinski, it was blunt.
Gender neutral bathrooms in our new game, @PatMcCroryNC. It takes place in the future, unlike the past you envision. pic.twitter.com/OPfXFyuZ7o
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 6, 2016
The screen shot shows a gender neutral bathroom in Lawbreakers, an upcoming competitive shooter coming from his new studio, Boss Key.
“I love having a game studio in this state that’s frequently embarrassing itself bc of him [McCrory],” said Bleszinski in another tweet.
When a Twitter user responded by saying Bleszinski’s stance would prompt him to avoid buying Lawbreakers, Bleszinski was undeterred. “Another knob whose money I don’t want,” he said. “Next?”
Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games, primarily based in Los Angeles but with a satellite studio in North Carolina, also slammed the law.
“Insomniac Games passionately believes in celebrating diversity and defending non-discrimination,” the company said in a statement. “We therefore strongly condemn HB2. Our studio policy has been and will continue to be that employees may use whichever restroom matches their gender identity.”
Funcom, the MMO developer behind The Secret World, joined them.
“This has been discussed internally in both our Oslo and North Carolina offices,” said Funcom North Carolina studio head Scott Junior, “and quite frankly, we all think the legislation is absolutely ridiculous.”
Epic Games declined to comment. Ubisoft, whose Red Storm studio is based in North Carolina did not respond to requests for comment.
Image Credit: Getty’s Images
Comments
9 responses to “North Carolina Game Companies Condemn State’s Ridiculous Bathroom Bill”
I wonder what exactly they’re protecting kids from with this? Maybe its just Australia but the male pedos here that were male at birth grab the male kids that enter the male bathrooms.
I personally prefer Paul Verhoeven’s visions of the future with the likes of Robocop and Starship Troopers where locker rooms and showers aren’t gender specific and nobody cares.
I think it’s more a reflection of a general discomfort with something they don’t understand.
There’s also bound to be a few people who think this is something that can be easily abused. As though wearing a dress gives me a bullet-proof defence as a pervert hanging out in women’s toilets.
I’m not agreeing with them or anything, but I think it’s important to remember that this isn’t entirely a group of stupid bigots bashing anything remotely different. I’d wager these are mostly just people who have arrived at a faulty conclusion out of genuine concern for what’s best.
No, they rushed it through to overrule a city from passing pro-trans laws. There was no thought process involved, else they would have realised this is pretty much unenforceable unless you have cops stationed outside toilets.
“entirely a group of stupid bigots bashing anything remotely different”
Looks that way to me. There’s no evidence of trans people stalking bathrooms. Plenty evidence of Religious pedos though.
I’m not saying their concern is founded on anything that justifies this law, just that this is a strange concept for a lot of people. Even people who experience this first hand don’t just go ‘oh, I’m a woman even though I was born with a penis, this all makes perfect sense’. As simple as it seems in hind sight it’s a confusing and complicated subject to come to terms with.
The bathroom issue hasn’t always been crystal clear even amongst transgender people. I remember in the 90’s I heard a woman argue that even though she considered herself a woman she had no right to force other women to be comfortable sharing the bathroom with someone who was born a man. The way she saw it there was no perfect solution so she should just hold it in or find a unisex single person bathroom. I disagree with that and would never support it as any sort of law but she made a valid enough point that I have to admit it’s not as black and white as I want it to be.
The only thing that really separates us from the majority of the people supporting (or not fighting against) this action is that we’ve had more exposure and thus have a better understanding. Ten, even five, years ago nobody was championing this cause. I guarantee back then Cliffy B hadn’t given any thought to who gets to use the ladies room, back then most people would probably have joked about it and not given it a second thought, yet here he is totally on board to stand up for people’s right to be treated like people.
Criticism of such a crappy law is great. It’s super important because that line of thinking is ridiculous and the law itself needs to be gone ASAP. Just keep in mind these people aren’t all automatically the bad guys. If you, like most people, formed your opinion on the subject in the past few years then open yourself to the possibility that they just need a little time to wrap their heads around the issue. If you insist that they’re nothing but broken, evil assholes they’ll dig in and never try to understand this stuff beyond their faulty knee jerk reaction.
I’d like to know where all these ‘transgender’ folks went before Caitlyn Jenner was the first ever person to have gender identification issues?
My theory is that the politicians are worried someone is going to interrupt the d**k-wrestling orgy we guys have in the men’s room. I need to be sure it’s all American p***s I’m juggling between my armpit and belly button and not some terrorist!
Oh. I thought it was going to be a law preventing people from sitting in a public toilet playing mobile games when there is a line of people outside who genuinely need to do a poo.
lol
That women symbol has skipped leg day too many times.
Yanks… letting kids have guns is ok, but oh no don’t let someone go to the bathroom because they look different.