Rue Dickey, who lives in Corvallis, Oregon, stated that as a transgender particular person, they felt helpless watching Texas officers start to analyze mother and father of trans kids.
Dickey, who makes use of “they” and “he” pronouns, stated they have been “having a bit of a crisis” at their day job in advertising when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state baby protecting companies company to pursue baby abuse investigations into the mother and father of transgender kids who are suspected of receiving gender-affirming medical care. (Those investigations have since been blocked by a choose.)
Dickey, 25, wished to do one thing to assist trans youth and their households in the state.
“The lack of things that I can do as a single person was super overwhelming,” they stated. That’s when Dickey, who additionally designs tabletop role-playing video games, remembered that Itch.io, an internet site that sells unbiased video games, held fundraisers for racial justice, Palestinian aid and, extra not too long ago, individuals in Ukraine.
Tabletop role-playing video games, resembling Dungeons and Dragons, a preferred sport launched in the Nineteen Seventies, are interactive; gamers sit round a desk and describe their characters’ actions, which have an effect on the remainder of the sport. One participant, often designated the sport grasp, describes the setting of the sport and makes use of a algorithm to offer gamers some construction and steering.
Dickey, who has been taking part in the video games for about 10 years and writing them since 2019, determined to collect different sport designers and create a bundle of video games to promote on Itch.io to learn two small teams in Texas that assist trans individuals, the Transgender Education Network of Texas and the Organización Latina de Trans en Texas.
The bundle they created contains 493 video games from 300 designers, and it’s on sale till April 3. It’s valued at greater than $2,700 however is obtainable by means of the fundraiser for $5.
The bundle went reside March 2, and Dickey stated they initially set the fundraising objective at $1,000.
Just 45 minutes later, the fund met that objective. So they elevated the objective to $5,000, and it was shortly surpassed once more.
They went to mattress, and the subsequent morning the fund hit $11,000. Since then, they’ve elevated the objective seven extra occasions to $420,000. As of Friday night, that had raised practically $394,000.
“I’ve cried probably a dozen times at this point,” Dickey stated. They stated representatives from each of the organizations have been “super excited” about it.
“When I first reached out to them, I was like, ‘Hey, we’re hoping to give you at least like $5K each,’ and now every time I email them, I’m like, ‘Hey, just an update, you’re getting $170,000 each now,’” they stated, laughing.
Dickey stated each teams have been speaking about what they’ll do with the funds, and so they have been particularly comfortable to listen to what a distinction it is going to make for Organización Latina de Trans en Texas. The trans immigrant-led group runs shelters in cities throughout Texas and likewise supplies authorized assist for identify adjustments and navigating the immigration course of.
A consultant for the group informed Dickey that the donation will probably be one among the largest that it has ever obtained, they stated. “It’s going to be enough money for them to do a lot of renovations and revamps to the shelters and things like that, which I’m super excited about.”
Tabletop role-playing video games have change into more and more well-liked amongst the queer neighborhood as the video games have change into extra inclusive. Dickey stated that they’ve two solutions for why role-playing video games are so well-liked amongst trans individuals in specific.
“My joking answer is that almost all tabletop games have werewolves, vampires, changelings or magic users, and I’ve never met a trans person who doesn’t identify with one of those,” they stated.
On a extra severe word, they stated that “tabletop role-playing games, at their heart, are about storytelling.” Often, trans individuals’s tales are informed by cisgender individuals, who determine with their assigned sexes at beginning, and are “portrayed by cis actors who don’t understand us and don’t know what we live,” Dickey stated.
Tabletop role-playing video games give trans individuals “the ability to be at our own table and centering ourselves in our stories and getting to play trans characters who the whole through line of their character isn’t that they’re trans, it’s just a part of who they are, and they still have dreams and goals and ambitions, and they’re a part of an adventuring party, they make a difference in the world,” they stated.
“How empowering it is to tell your own story and be a part of a narrative that centers you and your experiences, I think is a lot of what draws at least me and a lot of other trans folks that I know to tabletop games,” they stated.
There are just a few video games in the bundle that Dickey recommends, together with their very own — “not to toot my own horn,” they joked — referred to as “I Want Your Bite.” The sport is predicated off “The Bachelor,” the courting TV present, “but instead of the bachelor just being a normal person, the bachelor is a vampire,” Dickey stated. “So you’re not only competing for their hand, you’re also competing for immortal love.”
They stated one among the “big ticket items” in the bundle is a sport referred to as “Thirsty Sword Lesbians,” which they described as a “rivals-to-lovers,” high-drama sport. They additionally advocate “Wanderhome,” a fantasy sport in which the characters are small animals who defend their dwelling from numerous threats.
Dickey stated creating the bundle, and now promoting 40,000 of them, has introduced them a variety of pleasure amid what’s taking place in Texas and the dozens of different states which are contemplating payments focusing on transgender individuals.
They hope that trans youth in Texas know that they’re not alone.
“It’s super important to know that there will always be somewhere that you belong and that the world is duller without you in it,” they stated to trans youth. “So don’t let them try to put out the light that is so important that you bring to all the spaces that you’re in.”