SAN FRANCISCO — I remember, when I was a kid, desperately trying to persuade my mom and dad to buy me a Game Boy. They were very reluctant. The conventional wisdom of the early ’90s said that video games would rot kids’ brains, and as immigrants who came to North America from Iraq to provide a better life for me and my sister, my parents bought into that myth.

But there was another, more pernicious reason my mother questioned my interest: She thought it was a toy for boys. And could I really blame her? It was right there in the name: Game Boy.

I persisted, however, and after some months of campaigning finally convinced my parents that Nintendo’s hand-held gaming device was, in fact, appropriate for their little girl.

This was a story I was planning to share a couple of weeks ago at Utah State University. Unfortunately, I was not able to give my scheduled lecture there. The school received emailed threats to carry out “the deadliest school shooting in American history” if I were allowed to speak on campus. When the Utah campus police said they could not search attendees for firearms, citing the state’s concealed carry laws, I felt forced to cancel the event.