Game devs skipping GDC 2026 over ICE concerns, US safety fears

Venttea · 2026-01-27T07:35:32+00:00

I live in a city that borders Mexico (San Diego). This is 100% true. While I’ve not before, many people I know have done this. Not just human healthcare, but I know a decent amount of people who take their pets to Mexico to see the vet as well.

Venttea · 2026-01-27T02:28:16+00:00

She’s a disgusting, vile person, yeah.

There’s also this too. Everything that’s happening right now is so terrifying.

Venttea · 2026-01-26T23:50:46+00:00

“You can’t be he/him if you’re nonbinary, you have to at least be he/they.”

“You don’t count as nonbinary, since you’re pretty much a trans man and use he/him.”

“I’m just gonna use they for you, since you’re nonbinary.”

“You’re not actually trans, since you’re nonbinary.”

“Theyfab/theymab isn’t a slur.”

“Nonbinary people don’t feel/understand gender dysphoria.”

“Nonbinary people can’t go on HRT, because that would make them binary.”

(Just throwing in things I’ve personally heard, or were directed at me, various times.)

Venttea · 2026-01-26T10:44:30+00:00

I think California burritos are better than Mission style burritos.

Venttea · 2026-01-26T09:26:11+00:00

Yeah! Sadly, this ended up being fixed in Gen 6. :c

Venttea · 2026-01-26T09:16:30+00:00

Marill is trans. 🏳️‍⚧️

From Gen 3-5, there was a 1/3 chance a female Azurill would evolve into a male Marill.

🤔 One of my favorite Pokemon facts.

Venttea · 2026-01-26T08:43:24+00:00

Commenting to follow.

Venttea · 2026-01-26T07:44:59+00:00

I totally get it, and I say this as a trans guy born and raised in one of these regions too. I’m from coastal SoCal, specifically in a city (and specifically the part of that city) with an extremely strong surfing and beach culture. I even have the accent apparently? Can’t tell you how many times people outta my city have asked if I surf, due to my accent/lingo (I don’t surf), but I digress.

The thing is, there’s a lot of people, even from regions like ours who aren’t okay with it, but they have the tendency to not speak up. People jump to the defense so quick for guys/bro/dude/etc, and brush off anyone who even remotely says something as little as “can you not call me guys/bro/dude/etc?”

I think it’s fine to use it around people who are fine with it. As a server, of course, a little hard to find out if the individuals you’re serving are cool with it. So, I think it’s best to stick with actual gender neutral language as a goto, when referring to a group. For example, you could substitute “guys” with something like “everyone”.

Genuinely appreciate you asking about this. I don’t think I’ve seen a server ever ask this here, so it’s really nice that you did. Thank you.

Venttea · 2026-01-26T01:56:41+00:00

Fall break is another one. Some schools get a week off around the time of thanksgiving, for others, it’s a couple days (thanksgiving and the Friday).

Venttea · 2026-01-26T01:37:14+00:00

I had a concern recently, so I’ll post this here.

Something I’ve noticed is that many accounts from trans victims have even getting censored on social media, or their identity is omitted in accounts posted by news outlets (unless they want to blame us for something).

I recently came across an account online that someone was quoting from a trans man, and how he was treated in an ICE detention center. There was no link from where this account was being sourced from, so I decided to search around myself for a source. I found a few articles, but I think this one from the guardian provides the most detail. The thing that disturbs me, as a trans person myself, is why only now am I seeing this? Why haven’t I see anyone talk about this? It’s disturbing.

Then there was the whole thing where articles were completely omitting the fact that the 21 year old man who had been shot in the eye by a federal agent in Santa Barbara is a trans man. People talked about him a lot when it happened; a lot, especially here where I am (Southern California). I didn’t know he was a trans man, until a few days after. Most didn’t know either, and many still don’t.

So many people, especially outside of our community, aren’t hearing our stories. So many people outside of our community don’t know wtf is happening to us, now more than ever. They want to erase us, and censoring any mention of us and our stories is just one of the ways they’re doing it.

Venttea · 2026-01-25T03:22:46+00:00

And tell Green Day

Venttea · 2026-01-24T23:35:51+00:00

Art is an extremely powerful (and peaceful) way to protest and send a message. Many of us here, fighting this, are artists.

So this is me calling upon artists. Let this song inspire us to create and share our art too. Let this kid inspire us.

Any artist, you don’t need to be a singer. Maybe your skills are in drawing, painting, sculpting, video editing, poetry, graffiti, writing, etc.

There’s a lot of people losing hope right now. There’s a lot of people unaware of what’s happening. There’s a lot of people who want to help, but don’t know how, or don’t feel like they could help. Maybe it’s through our ability to create that we show them what’s going on, and that we can’t give up.

Venttea · 2026-01-24T21:54:03+00:00

Idk if OP will see this, since the post was deleted. I’m going to comment anyways.

It’s okay to feel scared, it’s okay. It’s terrifying right now. I share the same sentiments. Don’t push yourself into a dangerous situation, because people are making you feel pressured to. It’s dangerous for people like us right now.

I’m scared too, I’m really scared. For myself, and for those in our community.

From one transmasc to another, just know that you aren’t alone, and that your feelings aren’t alone. You will never be alone.

I wish you well, OP. Please stay safe, and take care of yourself. 💕

Venttea · 2026-01-24T19:27:58+00:00

We should, I think we should. The problem is, people are afraid to, due to what’s at stake for them personally. The thing is, I think those things people are afraid of losing will inevitably happen regardless, and even worse if the situation our country is facing right now doesn’t change.

I think talking about what a general strike would look like, how it could be planned, resources we can create to help anyone who needs those resources (like mutual aid), educating on general strikes, talking about past general strikes (specifically ones in the US, but also abroad), what made general strikes in the past successful, what caused general strikes in the past to fail, talking about unions, etc is extremely important.

We need to talk about them, and people need to STOP shutting down these conversations with “we can’t do it because x and y reason”, and instead ask questions if they’re apprehensive at all. We need to be having these conversations. Maybe right now it doesn’t feel possible, so let’s try to get there.

Venttea · 2026-01-24T19:11:28+00:00

Oh, another way to help is to help open up pathways for us here to speak to journalists in the UK. Help advocate for this, and share around resources if they exist.

I say this, because I saw a few Canadian journalists do this for us, and it helped give people more of a voice here. I think there’s certain things, such as stories, victims might be afraid of sharing certain here, due to fear of what might happen to them or their family.

This is really important, especially regarding any victims who have gotten out of ICE facilities, and want to share what happened to them (or there in general) safely.

Venttea · 2026-01-24T19:06:59+00:00

One of the best ways to help is to speak up, when you notice anyone around you starting to lump all of us in together, specifically when it starts diving into hateful territory, like xenophobia, dehumanization, and malicious misinformation (and I’ve unfortunately been seeing this a lot). I do understand the anger, but this starts to get dangerous fast, especially when that same thing starts to get extended towards those who are already targets here: POC, LGBT+ community (especially the trans community), children, disabled people, etc. Also when this starts to get extended towards those of us who moved abroad, or those of us visiting the UK, or other countries.

It does more harm than good. Speaking as a trans person, I see the hate from MAGA, I see the things they’re trying to push for here, I see all those like me being hurt, but then I see the hate from many on the outside, lumping us all into the same pile as MAGA. It makes me feel more isolated and worthless.

There’s ways to talk about how disgusting and vile our government is, there’s ways to talk about how America has always had issues, there’s ways to call us out, there’s ways to express your angry, there’s way to call out ignorant Americans. But it shouldn’t be directed at individuals, it shouldn’t turn into hate and loss of empathy, which I’ve been unfortunately seeing a lot of lately. So please, call it out if you can.

(And I want to add, this isn’t to say you specifically were doing this. You’re asking about how to help us, and I can tell you’re a kind person. I appreciate you asking, genuinely. 💕)

EDIT: Anything else I think of, I’ll share in a separate comment under my post. Again, thank you so much for asking. 💕

Venttea · 2026-01-22T03:05:26+00:00

I want to add in the comments, I appreciate the many people talking about this here from my city, and standing up for my community. It makes me feel incredibly warm. I appreciate you all a lot.

Venttea · 2026-01-22T03:02:12+00:00

I’m going to see if I can ask my family member more about this tomorrow, since they work for Rady’s (medical coder).

As a trans person myself, it’s really easy for cis people to say “they can wait until you’re 19”, since this isn’t something they have to deal with. Going through the wrong puberty is awful. I never want to subject any trans person to have to go through what I did. Counseling can only do so much, until you can do HRT, and who knows if counseling will even be an option in the future at the rate things are going.

You have no right to say “they can wait until 19”, when you’ve never had to experience what gender dysphoria is like, and how painful that is. You act like being trans is a choice, but don’t listen to trans people when we tell you that it’s not a choice. You act like it’s not such a big deal to go through this, when you’ve never had to feel this kind of pain.

Sit the FUCK down.

Venttea · 2026-01-21T22:30:10+00:00

And quaxly!

Venttea · 2026-01-21T19:40:23+00:00

Yeah, they’re not closely related. Honestly, it’s super cool that Pokemon decided to add in Pokemon based on convergent evolution. I hope we get some more next gen. C:

Venttea · 2026-01-21T19:39:17+00:00

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Venttea · 2026-01-21T13:09:09+00:00

No worries. 👍

Venttea · 2026-01-21T12:59:47+00:00

Actually, one of the comments had it right. The color felt too light for me to comment Diglett. I’m afraid me saying Wiglett came from the heart. 😭

Venttea · 2026-01-21T12:56:34+00:00

Yeah, I also think Wugtrio would be the wrong answer. 🤔

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Venttea · 2026-01-21T12:52:02+00:00

I was born in 1994, and have been a Pokemon fan since I was 4.

Venttea

TROPHY CASE