Yesterday, notice was received from Kate at Indiegogo that part of #Arkh’s pitch on indiegogo was “unlawful”. Namely, that the lines about using the money to hire queer people and PoC artists were “breaking anti-discrimination laws”. Now Arkh’s goal is to not only make this game, but to use the money to support the community at the end of its goals, the queer community and the PoC community. Therefore, it seeks to pay either queer developers or developers of color, because those communities are notoriously left out of the gaming industry, to the point where if they do manage to get a job at all, they are ridiculed and harassed until they quit.



I changed the pitch immediately and mentioned to Kate that I was upset about it. Kate responded with this:



* * * * * * * * * *

Thank you, I appreciate that!

Just to give you some context, we had someone threaten us with legal action because of that clause on your campaign. We’re having our legal advisors take a look at whether or not those two sentences violate any “law, statute or regulation”. I’m hoping that the answer is ‘no’ so that you can return your pitch to the way it was, but I need confirmation from our lawyers first.

Thanks for your understanding,

Kate

* * * * * * * *

All I have to say to the obviously cis straight white jerk who is angry that you can’t, once again, make money from queer people and people of color? To someone so upset at not being able to have everything in the world you made that ridiculous attempt at us, that even Kate at Indiegogo made sure to thwart?



Thanks. Really. :) You’re so selfish that you cannot bear to see something that doesn’t include you, something made for someone that isn’t you. You could spend your time playing any one of a million other video games just for you, but you attack what is, for so many, the one chance they will EVER be able to see themselves in a fantasy game of a high level.



That’s pathetic.



But it’s okay.



Things like this are exactly what the community needs to be pushed into going farther than they could have ever gone before. The fact that you went that far to try to stop us only guarantees that we’ll succeed. We’ll succeed and I’ll make sure to leave a SPECIAL message in the game JUST FOR YOU. :)

Your racism and queerphobia only served to further my agenda.

To all supporters of the Arkh Project and its philosophies:

Spread the word, folk. There are cis straight white people actively making attempts to shut us down because they hate us having anything for ourselves just that much.

Arkh is going to be Indiegogo’s Campaign of the day tomorrow, 1/25/12.

Now is the time, queer folks and non-white folks. Spread the word. Tweet #Arkh. Tweet everyone you know. Tweet writers, tweet artists, tweet famous people and tweet your cousin’s aunt’s sister. Blow it up. Blow it up so that we’re unstoppable.

Do not let the oppressors beat us. We are here, and we aren’t going away because they don’t like having to share.

Edit: To anyone complaining about the title of this post? The SPECIFIC individuals trying to shut down Arkh are ACTUALLY cis, straight and white. It is a fact, not a generalization.