Three North Carolina video game dev studios have spoken against the ludicrous House Bill 2, otherwise known as the "bathroom bill." The bill bans individuals from entering a public bathroom of the gender opposite to what is listed on their birth certificate. In short, transgenders on either side are "banned" from using their current gender bathroom. This was supposedly due to a need to protect children.
Numerous people have spoken against the bill, including Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, and has brought on much unrest from major businesses. PayPal cancelled plans to open a new operations center, which could have employed 400, and Cirque du Soleil, famous traveling performers (for lack of more fitting descriptors) have cancelled all North Carolina shows in protest.
The department of Justice is suing the state, saying this law violates civil rights. State governor Pat McCrory is counter suing.
Getting to the point, North Carolina's more prominent game developer, Cliff Bleszinski tagged McCrory in a tweet recently.
The above screenshot is a shot of the gender neutral bathroom to be featured in LawBreakers, the first game from Bleszinski's new studio, Boss Key.
Insomniac Games, primarily based in Los Angeles but has a smaller studio in North Carolina and one of my personal favorite developers, also spoke up.
“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.”
Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski's initial studio, declined to comment. Red Storm, as well as parent company Ubisoft, have not responded to requests for comments.
Still, its good to know there are good developers with their heads and their hearts in the right place in my home state. I know I don't get too political, I make an active effort to avoid it but this time it involved games, and some of my favorite developers so I had to put this up.
This story originally appeared on Kotaku, with a few other studios giving their opinions on the HB2.
