Trans rights activists took aim at a small gaming publication last week after one of their writers published an article on the popular game Animal Crossing.

Erina Rose, a young gaming journalist at the Australian startup Sausage Roll, wrote on how the mega-hit Animal Crossing had been censored for the western market to cater to LGBT groups. Her piece, published March 24, outlined how the game had changed “gender” with “style” in the title screen to avoid upsetting social justice warriors who didn’t want to identify as either male or female in the game.

Rose used evidence from three international versions of the game, which demonstrated the only edition where “sex” is censored is in the English one.

In a screenshot from Rose’s article, she demonstrates that in the Japanese version, “boy” or “girl” is still an option to be selected. But in the English version of the same game, the gendered terms have been replaced with “style.”

She also claims a source who worked at Nintendo on the Animal Crossing development team admitted to her the game had been changed to not upset LGBT groups.

Following the publication of the article, Rose began receiving horrific threats and abuse to her Twitter account and email.

The Post Millennial reached out to the editor at Sausage Roll, who provided us a screenshot of some of the abuse Rose, who is currently taking a writing hiatus, has been receiving. Some of the threats targeted Rose’s family, publishing her address and the names of her parents while calling her “a transphobic white trash Nazi” and threatening the livelihoods of her family.

Other abuse Rose received spammed her with abuse for utilizing a user-made photo from the Animal Crossing game in her article. The game allows users to make small graphics, and other players are able to screenshot them. One LGBT user made a “trans rights” graphic, and Rose used it in her article, which led to a barrage of hate.



When Sausage Roll’s unofficial backup account posted news of the Rose’s treatment and her hiatus to their twitter account, some users defended the abuse, citing the “transphobia” in Rose’s Animal Crossing article.

At this time, Rose has confirmed both she and her family are safe, and that the abuse has subsided for the time being, but she has locked her Twitter account out of concern for her safety.