As a transgender I’m #NotYourBullet Anti-GamerGate

I have been playing video games for a very long time, I experienced the mythical Vanilla WOW, I loved Legend of Zelda in the NES, and of course Battletoads.

Gaming has a very special place in my heart, I learned my second language thanks to video games, improved my spelling and grammar thanks to the grammar Nazis in WOW,(thank you grammar Nazis, keep up the good work) sure my grammar still has a long way to go, but at least I used to know the difference between literally and figuratively.

My experience with harassment and sexism is the same experience as most people would have in a game, if I play SC2 and totally destroy my opponent then, some times, I get some really hateful messages right after, is it because my name tag?, is it because male gamers hate female gamers?, or is it because I just literally destroyed my opponent?, I believe is the second option, based on the fact that some of my male friends receive even more hate and “harassment”, not because they are male but because they are much better players than me.

Nobody is trying to push me out of video games, as a matter of fact I have been recognized by my fellow gamers, I was the rewarded as the first Rogue in server to obtain the legendary daggers Fangs of the Father during the Cataclysm expansion for the server Sisters of Elune in the game World of Warcraft (yes I’m bragging about it).

I’m a gamer, I did beat Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest for NES when my first language was Spanish and I had to use an English/Spanish dictionary to find what to do in the game, I made long lasting friendships in my 6 years of World of Warcraft, I accumulated over 150k honorable kills in the WOW battlegrounds, I have enjoyed games for my entire life so yes I can honestly say that I’m a gamer.

I will defend gamers and gaming, because those where there for me in a very difficult part of my life, a period of time I almost did not survive.

Games are not better with censorship, freedom of speech is not only for those who agree with us, games are a form of art and artists should be free to express themselves.

No I do not support harassment and yet; feel free to disagree with me, feel free to provide facts, feel free to promotes lies just to enforce your narrative, because disagreement is not harassment, because being angry at me when I killed your Mage in PvP is not harassment, sure you could be more civilized while expressing your anger, but that is your choice, I will not demand for you to be censored because I don’t like what you have to say.

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

― George Orwell