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

@hacks4pancakes Would love to see Gen Con move to someplace better, but its size and needs mean there's not really a viable alternative. Any blue states out there wanna build a mega convention space with walkable hotels for 80K attendees? I can keep wishing...

J4YC33 ❌

@rickhunter @hacks4pancakes

Maryland, Colorado, New York, Nevada, California, Washington and Oregon all still exist...

Not moving Gen Con is a *choice* and with the regular controversies in tabletop gaming, I'm not surprised.

Rick Hunter

@j4yc33 @hacks4pancakes Gen Con needs at least 1 million sqft of walkable event space, with that predicted to grow again before their current contract is up. Vegas and Chicago are really the only places left in the US, but neither has hotel space that is adjacent and/or connected to support the attendees (gamers with large gear, mobility issues, cosplay). I'm sure Gen Con itself would love to hold it in Washington instead. Everyone seems to want it to move, but I'm not sure how without breaking it into smaller cons. (This debate comes up about every two weeks on social media. Nobody has the answer.)

Shannon Clark

@rickhunter @j4yc33 @hacks4pancakes San Diego? (2.6M sq ft and already handles comicon)

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.

https://www.polygon.com/23341281/awesome-games-done-quick-online-dates-florida-cancellation

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.

https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/indiana/new-indiana-gov-mike-braun-orders-elimination-dei-state-government-part-19-executive-orders-politics/531-c6feddf7-7cc4-425e-9284-d5ca6918b46d

https://wsbt.com/news/22-investigates/why-indiana-quickly-emerging-hotspot-large-scale-data-centers-computers-technology-social-media-st-joseph-county-computers-metronet-information-union-station-renewable-energy-web-digital-meta-google-governor-eric-holcomb-economy-new-carlisle-indiana

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.