When Florida can report and arrest trans people for just going to the bathroom, and they can now also forcibly detransition people in prison by refusing their meds and shaving their heads, and the industry is still ️conference at Epcot️!

Rick Hunter

@Rycaut @j4yc33 @hacks4pancakes It would certainly be nicer weather!

Emmy "Pristine Blade" Durden

@hacks4pancakes it really hadn't dawned on me just how bad Florida is until I read this. I knew it in a sense, but I didn't have the whole picture.

So let me get this straight. If you are trans in Florida, don't go to the bathroom in public. If you do, you risk going to prison. In prison, they will torture you by refusing your medications and shaving your head.

If you are pregnant and go to Florida, try not to have any medical issues. You may die in a hospital because medical care could risk your pregnancy, and if it does, you (and maybe your doctor) could go to prison. So either die or go to prison.

Also don't be cis but be too gender non-conforming, whether that's the clothes you wear or the shape of your body. You may end up avoiding the prison sentence that would come with using the wrong bathroom, but you could still be mistreated and arrested before they do whatever they do to verify your "real" gender. What is it that they do, again?

Shannon Clark

@rickhunter @j4yc33 @hacks4pancakes Plus California and a town already used to an event that has as much (or more) cosplay etc. Personally I'd love it as getting to Indy from California takes a day and isn't fun (often needing to change planes), San Diego is a short, cheap, quick flight)

But the bigger issue with San Diego is that a lot of people drive to GenCon (bringing games/taking home purchases) so a coastal location is challenging.

Detroit might be worth looking at for that reason.

Kevin P. Fleming

@vwbusguy @hacks4pancakes As always, ignoring the externalities makes things appear to be less expensive.

Scott Williams 🐧

@kevin @hacks4pancakes Absolutely - I recall GamesDoneQuick having an abrupt change of venue away from Florida due to the potential impact to participants.

Games Done Quick scraps Florida event, citing state’s COVID and anti-LGBTQ policies

Awesome Games Done Quick will be an online event from Jan. 8-15. The organizers say they canceled plans to use a physical venue in Florida due to the state’s political policies regarding COVID measures and LGBTQ people.

Polygon (www.polygon.com)

Lesley Carhart :unverified:

@sillyCoelophysis you are correct, and unfortunately it is not exaggeration. I keep hearing people outside the US saying, “it can’t be that bad” and I just

Asta [AMP]

@[email protected] @[email protected] I feel like anytime someone says “it can’t be that bad” about anything they cannot personally experience, someone should pop out of the woodwork and flick little droplets of water in their face as if they were a naughty kitten and need to leave the room.

Scott Williams 🐧

@kevin @hacks4pancakes Google and Amazon also don't seem to have such concerns as deal breakers.

Eliminating DEI and bringing workers back into the office, Gov. Braun signs 19 new executive orders

New Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Wednesday ordered the elimination of all DEI initiatives in state government as part of 19 executive orders.

wthr.com (www.wthr.com)

Why Indiana is quickly emerging as a hotspot for large-scale data centers

Computers, phones, cars and now artificial intelligence. Our society is engrossed in technology that needs data to keep it all working and to keep us connected.

WSBT (wsbt.com)

Scott Williams 🐧

@kevin @hacks4pancakes Being a "pro-business governor" means mandating moving stuff to public cloud and banning any kind of diversity initiative. Google and Amazon stand to gain a good amount from this.

Dave "Wear A Goddamn Mask" Cochran :donor:

@aud @hacks4pancakes @sillyCoelophysis in (possibly ill-suited) fairness to probably a lot of the people saying it, going from "murca, rah rah" less than a decade ago to "DON'T BE PREGNANT IN THESE STATES!" is kind of a massive shift and would, in all likelihood, sound pretty hyperbolic if you were not being actively confronted with the facts ALL THE TIME.

There's the "denial" group, absolutely - but there's also the "shock and disbelief and confusion" group and I really hope, i REALLY hope, that it's the bigger one.

Asta [AMP]

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] that’s a really fair point, and I also share your hope it’s mostly the latter.