Flight Rising
Sooo this is all over my plurk. (As it should be, since I made the first public plurk about it.)
For those who don't know, Thrage is one of the founders, creators, coders, and administrators of a popular online browser-based game, Flight Rising. It's kind of like neopets, if all of the neopets were giant dragons. He made some comments on his (public) facebook basically saying, "I support LGBT, except I don't think being transgendered is real and anybody who changes their gender is sick and mutilated their body for no real reason." So LGB, hold the T.
After a flurry of backlash, Thrage resigned. Which is good, yes! Except.. he's coming back, but only as a coder. Well, not so good, but honestly better than a lot of small companies would do. He's lost his status, and while he'll still be getting paid, it won't be a cut of the ad revenue / etc. that the site brings in, it'll be straight pay. And best of all, no trans* people who might play the game or use the site or navigate the forum will ever have to worry about that scumbag handling them, since he apparently finds all of them disgusting.
That's not what this is about, though.
After his resignation - and, in fact, prior to it - Thrage had legions of supporters. People who were saying, "Well, gee, it's just the internet, guys."
Let us look at their arguments for why this was all blown "out of proportion," shall we?
1: Freedom of speech
Counter: -is not freedom from consequences. Thrage had the right to say what he did, but his words still carry consequences. He's a man who was in a position of power in a company, running a game that a lot of people play. A game where they could hopefully not deal with that kind of bigotry. And they did what was within their rights: they told Flight Rising that hey, as long as this guy is in here, we're not going to support you. That's how this whole thing works, you see. He has the right to say it, LEGALLY, and people have the right to counter it.
2: It has nothing to do with the site! / It was on his personal blog!
Counter: As mentioned, he's still in a position of power within the company. Whether he likes it or not his name is attached to that game. When something like that is in public, you need to watch what you say. Period. Point. Try to find any company that's going to let you attach your name to their company and then come out with out-and-out hate speech. See how that works out for you. You are not free from consequence just because you took it somewhere else, not in a case like that.
3: Thrage is bad with words. He just worded it badly.
Counter: No. No he didn't. Nobody is objecting to the way he worded it. They're objecting that he worded it at all. Thrage answered a fairly controversial question (Would you be willing to date a trans* person?) He could have done so with minimum fuss: say, "I'm not sure I'd be comfortable dating a transwoman, but power to them." Woo! Man, that was hard. Instead, he used the comment to springboard to a discussion that nobody asked for, talking about how unnatural it was, how he didn't believe in dysphoria or that people could "change their genders." He practically stood up on a soapbox and shouted how people "like that" were mutilating their genitals, how it shouldn't even take place. THAT IS NOT BADLY WORDED. That is vile, vitriolic hate speech. And sure, he ends it with "I support their right to do it," but the fact is, that speech he spewed off is exactly the kind of speech that gets people killed. It's that mindset, which he is perpetuating, that gets people killed. Let's run that by you one more time: THAT OPINION LITERALLY KILLS PEOPLE.
4: It's just an opinion, and he's entitled to it.
Counter: THAT OPINION LITERALLY KILLS PEOPLE.
So, in short. People who are defending him either don't understand what the fuck they're talking about. Or.... they're the exact same kind of person Thrage is. They see themselves in what he says, and rush to defend him because of that.
You want to know why people are shunning YOU for defending HIM? That's why. Because people don't want to take the chance that you're the exact same kind of person to spew that hateful speech. To be a real and legitimate danger to the entire trans* community.
BAM. Out.