They painted their nails. Classmates asked “are you a fag?” They replied something like “Guess so.”

They painted their nails to match their overalls. Then when asked, said they were in fact gay.

Was I born this way though?

The original ‘born this way’ movement wasn’t so much to imply people are ‘X’ way and there’s nothing that changes, it was a response to (Christians) claiming that people we being made gay, or that they chose to be gay instead of ‘what they were born as’ which was heteronormative stuff. It was the idea you could ‘anti-gay’ it out of them.

Now though, of course you’re right, there’s no ‘way you are born’ and everyone grows and changes as they age and experience. At the time though we were fighting a post-Reagan society that was hell-bent on turning back as many societal acceptances as possible (sound familiar? :( )

So yes it’s both out of date and not entirely correct, but the spirit is why it’s still used, I think. 2SLGBTQIA+ aren’t a monolith, and I don’t speak for everyone, I just lived through it.

You deserve an award for being an excellent parental figure. This is the kind of support kids around the world need more of.

I’m sorry I don’t mean to be combative here, but I absolutely don’t. This is the bar for being a parent, not a great parent, just a parent. Backing up your kids is quite literally the least you should be doing.

So please, I appreciate what you’re meaning to do here, yet I don’t want that to be how this story reads. I want people to hear that and know that’s what we need to be doing as a bare minimum. Even if you’re not a parent, this is basic community stuff. Kids bullying the poor young girl who’s trying to transition? Shut that shit down. Store owner won’t let certain races in? Shut that shit down. Kids feel like they can’t be themselves because it ‘isn’t normal’? Shut that shit down.

One of my kids came out as gay, and was immediately bullied by both staff and students (they were in trade school). I did the usual furious parent stuff, but also added a piece of flair every day to tell the world I was bi, and wore a bow in my hair. They came to me a few days later and came out as non-binary, and asked for help getting clothes to match who they were.

It wasn’t the threats I made to the teacher, it wasn’t the death stares I gave their classmates, it was seeing someone they trusted showing them not everyone is straight that did it. I am so very proud of them.

I didn’t do anything spectacular, I don’t want praise, I just want to tell everyone I meet that tiny actions like that ripple out.

The 2000’s were bad, but check out our friends Bill and Ted in '89 :( (Shitty epithet to follow)

I’m so sorry you’ve lost him. Thank you for sharing your love of him with us <3

I thought this was aneurysm-posting for a minute.

I’m proud of you for escaping that. <3

<3

I wish you the best, I’m looking outside software in general. I used to offer to help people find employment in games but now I just can’t. I’ve seen too many people broken by it.

I do hope you find something, anything, so you can continue to survive.

I’d argue that the skills required to work in the videogame industry are easily repurposed for other IT or creative jobs.

I know dozens of people who’ve been looking for over a year, for anything in the software field. The issue is companies would rather hire a kid straight out of school than pay for someone with experience. I’m in a discord channel of people (from the last place I worked at that has now gone bankrupt) and the vast majority are still without a job. Most are going outside the industry into the standbys (food service, warehouse, etc). My linkedin was so depressing, post after post about people who used to be engineers I worked with now getting hurt working in Amazon Fulfillmment centres, I just stopped going there and use discord/indeed for job searching. I’m really close with the QA team from my last job, and all but one of them have moved back in with their parents.

It is fucking bleak in software right now.

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether.

Not sure where people think everyone is going to go; there are more closures than job openings.

True. If you get yourself an interesting skill set, either your employer will pay accordingly or you won’t have difficulty finding one that does.

The entire video game industry would love a word.