Parents With Inconvenient Truths about Trans #transphobia pittparents.com
In 2014, my son started to ask for the popular block-building computer game known as "Minecraft." Later that year, my wife and I decided to get said game for him, and he loved it. He constantly showed us his latest creations and buildings.
Little did we know, this seemingly innocent game was a gateway drug to cross-sex hormones, wrong-gender pronouns, and a replaced name.
You see, while it may seem like a healthy outlet for creative expression, Minecraft is actually a very popular game among so-called "trans-identifying children." The reason for this is because the game allows for expression of dangerous ideas, and has little to no moderation, being primarily singleplayer.
One of the most problematic parts of this horrible game is the ability for players to upload their own "skins" – essentially, each player can create a character for themselves in simple photo editing apps such as photoshop. This means that the selection of characters is limited only by the players' imaginations. On the surface, this seems to be a positive of the game, but it turns out that it is not.
This unlimited customization dangerously blurs the boundaries of gender and sex, and, especially considering the predominantly young player base of Minecraft, can be very confusing in terms of gender. One of these confused young people is my son, now 21 years old, who, it turns out, had been using the default "girl" skin of Minecraft, often shown in marketing alongside a more fitting masculine character. While this is not concerning on its own, having done so since the age of 11 will surely have contributed to his gender confusion.