With the increase of transphobia in politics and media it’s no surprise that many individuals are seeing the same in their hobbies. With a heavy heart, it burdens me to say that I have witnessed the same, especially in Warhammer and Gunpla, not to mention an increase in anti-LGBTQIA rhetoric as well.
This is highly unfortunate as I’ve been told by multiple people that these attitudes are the reason that they haven’t been able to enjoy such things. It’s asinine that people just can’t be inclusive and not complete twats about it. Trans individuals will not “ruin” your hobbies. A pride flag is not “brainwashing propaganda”. These people exist and deserve to enjoy their hobbies. This is a non-negotiable fact.
Call me woke or liberal, I don’t care at this point. I want my friends and even people who I don’t know yet to feel comfortable and safe.
Yeah, Warhammer is a grimdark setting but adding in transphobia, homophobia, or just blatant sexism just because it’s “grimdark” is stupid and a boring way of worldbuilding. I don’t think the Imperium would care as long as you lived, served, or died for the Emperor.
It is pretty sad when you have people saying they’d rather the hobby die than have it be inclusive. It’s a partial reason I don’t get involved in the Twitter Warhammer community as much as I used to and predominantly stick with smaller online groups to hang out with. If it’s tough for me, and I’ve been involved with Warhammer for years now, I can’t imagine what it’s like for trans individuals trying to join the hobby or even attempt to participate in it.
Tell me, as a grown adult, why the hell are you saying “purge the heretics and xenos” unironically as an adult when it comes to queer and trans individuals. It’s cringe and that’s coming from me, a somewhat cringe individual.
I’ve seen the same uptick of behaviors in gunpla when Witch from Mercury came out. Suddenly it was “sPaCe LeSbIaNs mAdE gUnDam WoKe” and other half-ass complaints. Suletta and Miorine are married, as confirmed by the Director of the series.
No. It didn’t make Gundam go woke. Gundam’s always been inherently queer-coded and political. Look at Char and Amuro and you tell me those motherfuckers are straight. Just look at them. Here’s a post I enjoyed reading about Char.
I would like to note that even in these difficult environments it’s important to recognize individuals and allies who help to keep these spaces safe and welcoming. It’s not always easy to do but we always appreciate those who do.
If you’re wondering how to build an inclusive environment, I like this write-up. It might need some small changes to be useful for hobby environments but I think it helps out.
Here are several articles and posts I found while doing some pre-blog reading. I recommend giving them a read!
Playing only trans characters in tabletop RPGs helped me understand myself by Alex Viney
I’ll play Warhammer 40k when LGBT+ folks can feel safe in it by Jack Trumbull
The weird story about how AoS helped me go from a toxic egg to a happier trans girl
Representation and Diversity – why it matters (Topic Discussion) by Olivine Kinne
Want to support our blog? Then sign up for email notifications. We also got a snazzy Discord server!
Have a good Tuesday everyone!
-J
Creeping for Scale Models 
There’s surprisingly quite a few trans people in our local Magic community. They’re all cool people. End of.
Anybody who isn’t trans has ADHD. I’m comfortably Cis, so… haha.
Is it coincidental that my LGS has such an awesome vibe and also has a good number of girls, enbys, transfolk, sexualities, ages, neurospicyness and backgrounds? Maybe.
I just don’t get why people care about any of this stuff. Probably they are just isolated and scared of anything different. But then I grew up having two Aunts who lived together and that was just normal. That relationship ended but I still consider my now-uncle’s (he is intersex, now living as a man) ex to be family, and her children my cousins. The trickiest thing about this whole situation is working out the best way to phrase historical stuff. “My uncle was in a lesbian relationship”: technically true. Ditto with an ex of mine who broke their egg at some point after we broke up. Seems obvious now since they never presented traditionally feminine. Not sure where I am going with this personal stuff, but yeah.
In any case I do love it when someone posts their trans flag themed Tyranids to /r/40k and gets all the oxygen thieves all wound up. I think online spaces are getting better and generally these sort of people get sidelined. Still a long way to go though.
How many times do you need to make a post like this though? I suspect that sadly this may not be the last. But good kōrero anyway.
LikeLike
It’s not “woke” or “liberal” to not discriminate against people. It’s just being a normal human being.
People who discriminate aren’t “conservative” or “traditional,” either. They’re evil bigots. They’re human garbage.
We need to call ’em like we see ’em.
LikeLike