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On July 23 media hosting platform Itch.io began systematically delisting, and in some cases removing, hundreds of LGBTQ+ and/or adult video games, table top RPGs, written stories and works of art from their storefront. This occurred overnight, after Australian anti-porn and anti-LGBTQ+ group Collective Shout pressured payment processors Visa and Mastercard to push Itch to purge such content from their website.

This caused immediate, mass damage. The Transfeminine Review, who broke this story, reported that many users were initially unable to access payments they had already received and the immediacy of this push wreaked confusion over what games and developers were being impacted. The situation was so chaotic PC Gamer had to issue a correction earlier this week on a story interviewing several developers, as even they found themselves unable to fully confirm what games were impacted.

In Transfeminine Review’s initial story, Itch gave no comment on why this was done or the scale of the impact.

These bans were not entirely unanticipated. In 2021 journalist Ana Valens reported on this very type of problem, warning it could eventually affect Itch given similar prior attacks on gaming hosting sites like Steam. On July 20, PC Gamer reported that Collective Shout was already planning to target numerous websites, with Itch just one of many.

At the time of the PC Gamer article’s publication the only statement given by Itch’s team was through a single saluting emoji posted by the founder on the community Discord. On July 24, Itch finally released a public statement. They justified the lack of notice as having to “act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure. Unfortunately, this meant it was not realistic to provide creators with advance notice before making this change.”

Itch apologized for this “abruptness,” adding that they are auditing the website and would not reindex pages that they deemed as violating their policies while they implemented new “compliance measures.” They additionally said that “for NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account,” with an additional notice that some pages will be “permanently removed.”

This statement revealed that every single adult game would be deindexed from the storefront. While Collective Shout denies involvement in pushing the removal of all adult content, alleging they only advocated removing games with tags they disliked, Itch nevertheless maintains that they were pressured to deindex all adult content.

Immediately both Itch creators and fans began to mobilize in response. Users launched viral campaigns to bombard Visa and MasterCard’s customer support lines with calls in protest. Users shared any updates they had about new means of contacting payment processors, with many giving detailed strategy guides on how to best call in protest to get an effective response.

These users reported that, for multiple days, those customer service lines were overwhelmed and that workers said they were told by management not to talk to the public about these bans. Polygon reported that this amounted to the boycott stalling entire customer service lines on nonstop lengthy holds in an effort to get payment processors to reverse course.

This push has already had some positive effects. The founder of Itch, known as Leaf, revealed that the most effective target for protest is the payment processor Stripe. Leaf, in an addendum to the statement, suggested that there are ongoing negotiations with both Stripe and PayPal, especially to try and maintain what content remains on the site.

According to Valens, the continued pressure on Visa has had demonstrable effects through their customer service employees. Activists report being screamed at by customer service reps, having insults like “rapist” hurled at them and employees even alleging that callers may be engaging with illegal content. As many in the replies to Valens’ post said, this is a sign to both keep going while also maintaining some compassion for overworked call center employees, who are likely facing harassment from management.

Currently, it isn’t clear what direction things will go. Trans News Network reached out to Itch, Visa, and MasterCard for comment. None replied before publication.

In a statement to Trans News Network, Stripe declared: "Stripe has a policy against commenting on users. Generally speaking, we take action when we conclude that users violate our terms of service. We do not support adult content."

Trans News Network replied, urging a better response that addresses users’ needs, and has not received any additional reply. Following this statement, users revealed how to put pressure on Stripe through public information.

Payment processors are continuing to raise more escalations. Valens reported that, according to an insider with game studio Riot Games, MasterCard is pushing them to censor any instances of negative talk about the company in any contexts affiliated with the site.

But signs are emerging that the protests are working, though payment processors still denythat public pressure is having an effect. One Reddit user claimed to receive an emailed response from Visa that said:

"As a global company, we follow the laws and regulations everywhere we do business. While we explicitly prohibit illegal activity on our network, we are equally committed to protecting legal commerce. If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers."

“Visa does not moderate content sold by merchants, nor do we have visibility into the specific goods or services sold when we process a transaction. When a legally operating merchant faces an elevated risk of illegal activity, we require enhanced safeguards for the banks supporting those merchants."

MasterCard released a similar statement publicly on their website:

“Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.

Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.”

Regardless of the position payment processors and Itch take, it is undeniable that an immense amount of damage has been done to independent creators. Trans News Network talked to over two dozen game developers, artists, and writers about their experiences with the Itch ban, and how it affected them. The result was an overwhelming consensus of the fear that these bans will have as they grow in severity and affect more walks of life.

In the immediate days after, creators have found themselves at a loss of what to do. Game developer krispycat, also known as ButterflyLatte, reports that her NSFW game demo, known as “The Seventh Bride,” was deindexed, and is only shown when specifically searched for. It wasn’t just this game, either.

“On a whim, I tried to search up my SFW games as well - Wendy, warm, Like Seafoam. These games are fairly innocent and wholesome; 'warm' and 'Wendy' star children. However, they don't appear in the suggestions either - I suspect it's because they're yuri games,” she recounted, describing a genre of fiction which depicts romance between two female characters and has no inherent sexual elements.

“I am concerned that my audience will be severely cut. I'm already having to search for other places to release this particular game, and am worrying where I will be able to release future projects as well.”

She was not the only developer who reported the company singling out yuri content.

Developer Blood Machine, who primarily does both NSFW and SFW yuri content, reports that one of her games, called Girl Purgatoriem, was taken off the site completely. While reuploaded on her personal website, she still finds herself severely affected.

“It’s uncertain if I can take out collected funds out of Itch at all, uncertain how safe my next game will be to release. Another TTRPG I did art for is quite hard to publish on Itch now as well. Also most of my friends make games and had at least one in progress or published project affected.”

Blood Machine also does commissions for both 2D and 3D art, which she notes is also at risk if this censorship escalates further. “Since the commissions are very much tied to gamedev, often released on itch, it affects me quite directly there as well, as well as putting me at risk with accepting payments at all potentially, since I accept a lot of commissions that are NSFW in nature.”

Developer Toni (AKA A Story In Pieces), who the writer of this article previously interviewed and playtested a game for, develops primarily lesbian erotic/horror homebrew GameBoy games. She similarly reports seeing a substantial drop in attention and income from this ban.

“My most popular games, and the only ones that I consistently earn any money or opportunities from, have been delisted from Itch’s store. They can't be searched directly on the site or found through browsing anymore, so even after the initial push of support and downloading from people over the ban, my overall traffic has sunk,” Toni said. “Itch's new terms about what content is permitted has put community funding bundles into chaos, too, and could mean I won't even see the previous payout I'm still waiting on.”

She said that this is her only consistent source of funding, and so her future revenue is impacted severely. In addition, her ability to sell physical goods is at risk. “I was hoping to sell physical cartridges of my games in-future, as well as little things like stickers, but there's even less places to sell physical goods from NSFW materials than the digital ones I already struggle to find a host for and sell.”

She added an important concern: that other sites like Patreon will also begin cracking down on queer content. “Between this and the new worry that places like Patreon will follow suit and shut NSFW creators out entirely soon, the impact seems to be coming from what feels like all sides.”

The impact this has had on some developers is particularly severe. A game developer known as Maddie May, also known as Milkboy, reports that two of her projects have been deindexed, including one that’s strictly safe for work. This impacted her views, with the days following seeing a significant dip, and discouraged her from working on future projects. More significantly, this may also make her homeless.

“I have no other means to support myself currently. Itch made me a little bit of money, but it already wasn't a lot,” May said. “Me and my girlfriend have been on the verge of homelessness for a while, and we survive completely on her income. I'm fortunate enough to have a place to live and a partner who makes enough to support what I do, but we just barely scrape by. Itch helped ease that struggle, if only a bit.”

Another game developer, Taylor McCue, focuses on video games about her experience as a trans woman. While she’s been out of game development for a couple of years, she was notified out of the blue as a journalist reached out to her about her games being deindexed.

“I am an older millennial queer and I remember the feelings of loneliness and the void of just not having anything like me in what I played. I got to see itch become a renaissance of queer works and community. I viewed it as an art movement and a potential future that I was a part of,” she recounted. “Since my game has been de-indexed I don’t know what to think. The pessimistic part of me knew this day would come but I didn’t think it would come so soon. When it did come I thought itch would at least email me or something.

“On the first day my viewcount and downloads spiked with people downloading the game and playing it one last time before it potentially vanished. Some people commented on the game as if it were doomed and I just didn’t know how to respond.”

Developers outside of the United States are just as affected. TangledVirus, a game developer from Brazil who was previously interviewed by this article’s author, creates a variety of visual novels on Itch, only some of which are NSFW. They report being severely affected by this.

“All of my adult visual novels were deindexed. I did change the tags on them and they are now back to being listed but some still aren't,” they said. “I have a patreon but like, most of my income was from the games on Itch and the adult ones were the ones that made the most cash.”

One Brazilian developer, who works the Wet Floor Games team, and who requested anonymity for safety, reports that the deindexing of their games resulted in a loss of thousands of views and dozens of downloads. According to statistics they shared, as of July 23, their games received around 5,000 views a day. After they were deindexed, they rarely got over 1,000 views a day.

Video game developers aren’t the only ones affected by this, either. Dorian, a member of the House of Black Roses plural collective, writes poetry and erotic novella hosted on Itch. One of their most popular works, an erotic short story collection, was deindexed from search pages, prompting them to take down the rest of their works in fear of further retaliation.

“This ban essentially removes Itch as a viable place for us to share work and build community. It's also been a hit to our feelings of relative safety in terms of finances and overall ability to build up something that allowed us a bit of freedom,” they said, adding that this was one of their sole sources of income as a disabled collective.

“Given that so many places use them as payment processors, their policies do run the risk of impacting us virtually anywhere we might try to establish ourselves,” they continued. “Policies like this really make it difficult to do one of the few things we can consistently handle doing as any form of job.”

A writer known as Worm Wood and Whatsanapocalae a trans man who does erotic short horror stories, reports that all of his work, aside from a rough draft of a novel, “have been shadowbanned.” Three of his pieces, including a free one, “have been removed.”

Astrid, a queer author, reports that they host entirely safe for work stories on Itch - nothing explicit, nothing sexual.

“I don’t even know how it happened. It’s just my book, which is actually a pre-order, but was searchable before. It’s no longer searchable. You have to go in and find it with a direct link,” they said. “So far, it hasn’t entirely hurt me, but I feel like if it doesn’t get resolved by the time it gets released in a few months, then it could. But not being able to find it’s kind of scary.”

Another writer, who goes by both Dee and Tormented Artifacts, primarily works on safe-for-work queer cosmic horror. She describes how none of her works have anything in them that violates the Itch adult content rules – and yet were still deindexed.

“I’m getting zero sales now from the platform that was my biggest sale leader for the last three months. This is about a third of my income gone.”

While she has additional income through her work in leatherwork and as a tattoo artist, the bans are still a severe hit.

“It’s becoming clear [far-right actors] are going to be driving us off of social media for existing as trans, and the social; media and internet is where I make my living. Can’t do it in person anymore. It’s not just about the ability to have a life via having an income, it’s also a long-term impact on your quality of life,” she said. “The people I network and talk to to keep myself sane are all online, they’re all over the world.”

Talia, another writer and also a tabletop game developer, saw one of her works entirely deindexed because of a single sex scene, and for being tagged adult. “They just quietly removed our visibility of our works overnight without any warning. That’s compliance in advance. We’re not safe here.”

She has no other storefronts where she can sell her products, save for Patreon, as the continued worries of pressure from Stripe and PayPal eats at her. She currently has no other means of supporting herself.

Artists are just as impacted. Dusky, an artist and writer, was working on launching a large queer NSFW webcomic. They were going to put it up on Itch for a small fee, with additional means of support through Patreon.

“I had started arranging my stuff to be formatted to post [on Itch], and I’ve been working on it for the past couple of months, then this happened.” While their content was going to contain adult themes and sexual content, they emphasized it wasn’t porn, but a larger narrative.

“I’m angry, I feel violated, I feel a sense of despair. What do I do? I’ve been preparing to do it this way, and now I’ve got to finally change gears, figure out how to reorganize my stuff, figure out how I’m going to monetize it.”

Dusky brought up a similar sense of anxiety as others – that other services like Patreon would fall. “So if I’m somebody who is targeting people for specific reasons, then my next target would of course be Patreon. So even with the lifeline of Patreon being there, I’m not confident anymore.”

One user, who organized a bundle (a group of discounted games purchasable in a collection) for queer adult media and requested anonymity to avoid targeting, reports that games in their bundle – alongside many others – are being completely taken down by users out of fear of having their livelihoods stripped.

“These bundles are a lifeline for queer creatives, and now they're basically off the table. A lot of adult material is usually in these bundles,” they said, while adding that the community was nevertheless banding together in the face of this growing adversity, still holding hope for the future.

Taylor McCue mentioned still having some hope for Itch specifically.

“I got more donations in one day than I usually get in two weeks like 90 dollars vs maybe 5 dollars. It felt weird seeing that much money come in since I didn’t know and still don’t know if itch will actually let me withdraw that money. It was a weird feeling. Since then my view count has plummeted back down to lower than it was before.

“I haven’t done a lot with my life but the games I made are one of the few things I was proud of that made me feel like I mattered beyond just being an insignificant speck in the universe. It made me feel like people cared,” she added. “With the way itch is now I have been rushing to create archives through archive.org and self hosting. I’ve asked people to help keep my games alive by sharing them but ultimately I’m not a company.

“I don’t know how the people who liked my last games will be able to find anything new I make. It’s just really sad,” she concluded. “I guess the fucked up thing is – and I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this or not – is that I never thought I’d have my own experiences with sexual trauma and sex work de-indexed in the name of ‘protecting women.’ I am afraid that if this keeps up there won’t be any place to talk about being fucked up, abused, or just anything negative.”

Worm Wood was planning on launching a storefront to help support himself, and is anxious about the impacts these bans will have on his work. While his main job isn’t affected, he nevertheless has been focusing on expanding his reach and making connections in the community through this.

“I am worried about how it’s going to impact my shop once it opens and how I’m going to market myself, because having everything on Itch and in bundles with other creatives got my work into the public eye in a way that I didn’t ever expect.”

Some creators report that an entire game jam – or collection of games developed in a short period to build community – was affected. The Toxic Yuri Game Jam, consisting of over 200 different games, saw significant hits, with over half of the games delisted and several being completely removed from the site. One user, known as Kastel, describes how a joke game they made was delisted squarely for having the tag “erotic.”

They mention how this jam was filled with first time developers, and how the occurrence of these bans led to mass panic, watching a happy community turn into people feeling completely doomed.

“I’ve done a bunch of these game jams, so I’m giving them advice. And then I’m looking at all this and it’s just… what do I even say? This is a pretty bad situation. I can’t pretend that this is good. This isn’t a wonderful thing we can all survive. It’s pretty rough. I feel bad for everyone, especially because it’s their first wave of censorship.”

A separate developer, known as Saoirse, describes how her team’s game ‘Contamination Protocol’ was made for lesbians as a “weird alien bug sex game,” something created by her community for fun. Her game, like many others, were de-indexed for having adult content. But notably, she points out that games tagged with “incest” – often games made by developers exploring their own trauma – were immediately removed from the site entirely.

“I think it was everything that was specifically tagged with incest was like fully de-listed from the platform. So that has obviously kind of thrown a lot of the jam into a little bit of chaos,” she said. “All of the judges have said, you know, everything's still going to keep going. We have all of the games, but there are a couple games that were only hosted on the web. There were no like direct downloads to them. So that's especially tough.”

She detailed that, while there are games being shared in a small torrent so community members can play them, this is hardly a permanent solution, and it certainly can’t help developers get off the ground.

She also gave statistics for her game’s performance. Prior to the ban, it received around 71 views. Afterwards, it received only seven.

While she isn’t relying on this game to survive owing to its free nature, many developers in the jam do rely on game development income full-time. She also mentions that she “wouldn't be surprised if this reach just continues to expand,” but adds she just wants to help people push back on this.

Another user, known as Fisher, describes how it was one of the people who helped discover the bans to begin with. It noticed that one of the games in the jam wasn’t indexed, knowing that it was previously. “Someone in the [Toxic Yuri Game Jam] server started talking to me about game indexing, and noticed how it seemed like a lot of games weren’t searchable. I checked, and found that my own game, which had been previously indexed, no longer was.”

“Everyone is disrupted now. People are in a rush to make their own websites, host their games - and some people have even had payouts frozen if their games were suspended.”

Palette, another game developer in the jam, saw her works delisted as well. “Itch's ban… got my visual novel delisted just weeks after finishing it, which was really really sucky… The real tragedy to me is my sisters and inspiration, the authors that got me into this scene. I'm not dependent on my art like a lot of them are, but also more selfishly... I'm upset they're harder to find or completely gone. I've never really been into the more sexual aspects of their works specifically (‘I read it for the plot’ but unironically, hahaha), but the stories, the characters, the art matters to me.

“She Was Swallowed by the Sun by Snek RK is a work that's really important to me because of its story, its world, its characters, its themes of resisting fascism and anger at a world that hates you, and it's delisted now,” she said.

Emmeline, also known as pltn, is a developer focusing on visual novels, and who also participated in the jam. She details how a big point of this game is to write about “women in unhealthy relationships, with space for those who want to explore risque content that often leads to 18+ markings. I find having that element of freedom in creative expression can be liberating.”

She gave concise but harrowing words about the impact the ban had on her. “As a result of the ban, I and thousands of other developers have had our work turned invisible, and in some cases, taken off the site outright. The effects of the bans came without warning, and many creators who rely on Itch as a source of income are left scrambling to figure out what their options are. I have to consider if I want to self-censor, find other more niche platforms to host sensitive art on, or be erased.”

Another developer, known as Pengo, is a disabled game developer who creates both SFW and NSFW visual novels, often around subverting the gender binary. He emphasized how, both before and after the ban was initiated, there was a strong and kind community among all the folk within, even while making games with topics that payment processors deem unsavory.

“The only game I currently have on Itch (though I am making another game currently that I hope to have done by September) is the demo of Seams and Senses, the game I made for the TYVJ,” he said of his game. “It's a character-driven game that shows neurodivergent queer characters as they try to survive both a capitalist world that doesn't care about their needs and maladaptive behaviors they themselves have formed over time.

“I made (and am continuing to make!) this game out of love for myself and for others who may struggle with similar issues. It has a lot of intimate and raw feelings inside. The characters are toxic in generally grounded ways despite the weird designs and setting, and I'd like it if people could feel seen through them,” he continued. “If people felt less alone and more accepting of their thoughts and feelings. It is the first piece of media I've made to actively involve sex without any hiding or skirting around it.”

He had hoped that developing on Itch would allow him to grow an audience, yet his game was deindexed, only accessible through direct links. “It felt worthwhile and like I might be able to make an income for myself, but now... I dunno. I guess I'm just going to see what happens. I know a lot of people disagree with these policy changes and with payment processors being so controlling, so hopefully things change. I would love to be able to connect with people who enjoy my work, without it being a secret passed around in whispered queer circles.”

Slitherbop, another developer, described how the game he developed, RAINJOKE, was completely removed from the storefront entirely. “It feels like... this is really sad and scary and frustrating that people are no longer allowed to even be near these topics. I Already felt extremely limited in expression due to social pressure, it’s fucked up that even now that I felt comfortable enough to not care, there’s suddenly increasingly less and less places to share it anyways.”

“It makes me worry about the future of art, and information in general. I worry that there is going to be so many games that were on itch that are just going to be lost to time and forgotten about because of this. They should get to exist too. I want art to persist so bad, ESPECIALLY the queer and horny and visceral ones.”

He has since listed the game on his personal website, after seeing the perseverance within the community. While he still has anxiety over other sites like Ko-Fi removing NSFW content, he continues nevertheless.

He added that this community gave him hope to start developing this type of work to begin with. “Seeing what the jam runners had previously made and what other people were making for the jam was really motivating. It made me feel like whoa, people WON’T kill me for what I want to express in my story “

A first time developer, who requested anonymity for safety, saw that the game they submitted to the jam was delisted. “I’m honestly crushed. I thought I’d found a safe place to post art about topics of queerness and kink that are important to me, but it seems that was a futile hope,” they said, adding that their game is nearly impossible to discover outside of a single listing.

Yet, they describe immense support from the community in response.

“Overwhelmingly, the jam's community has been full of kind, mature, and passionate people who are eager to make all sorts of art. Folks in the server were incredibly happy to help one another through code debugging, writer's block, illustration, or just to offer each other encouragement, and many have stuck.”

The Wet Floor Games developer reported pausing all game development. The reason: to build a new website as an alternative to Itch. That project is still in its early stages, but they were already considering it prior to these bans.

“For starters, Itch doesn't support Pix (Brazilian public payment system), which other game devs here in Brazil were vocal about as it's a big deal for us,” they said. “On top of that, I felt Itch's periods of instability and being offline were way too frequent, which made me afraid of solely relying on it to host our games (and more broadly, afraid for the wider indie game community for also being very reliant on it).”

“So, even though I'd never made a website before, I started researching and asking around to put stuff into motion. but nothing concrete. Then the NSFW deindexing happened, and it really sealed the deal for me to focus on this project,” they continued. “I understand ‘make a better storefront’ doesn't address the root causes of the issues we're facing, but I feel it can do some good for the indie game community in the meantime… I feel like the model I've come up with will make it more resistant to future content bans than Itch was.”

Still, this project is in its very early stages, and they emphasized that this is all still very tentative. Nevertheless, they “find the investment necessary. not just for my own games, but for the good of the community.”

This developer isn’t the only one considering going independent. Fisher mentioned having concerns about hosting future game jams, and having to develop a separate site. “I had planned to host the EroHorror Jam from September to mid October, and the Ryona Jam from January to mid February,” it said. “The games that would be made for these jams now fall outside the rules of what itch would allow, so I now need to go through the process of making my own website to host the jam on, outside of itch.”

Pengo described how his lack of options forced him into a sort of activism against payment processors for this.

“I feel like I will never be able to support myself through my work if what I want to create is barred from monetization unless it is scrubbed clean of any sort of queerness or adult content. I'm under disability in part because it is believed I cannot hold a regular job either, so... What's next for me? I don't really know. Like I said, I'm just kind of seeing what happens. Calling, sending emails, doing what little I can to support, but ultimately just seeing what happens.”

The Toxic Yuri first time developer described how the community created a sort of underground network in response to these bans.

“Since Itch's announcements and changes in policy, many folks in the jam community have been working to pull together all of the jam games into a large zip file, or make their own personal websites to host their work,” they continued. “Folks are working hard to preserve what they've made, but sadly direct downloads and private websites just don't have the reach that a seat in Itch's incredibly trafficked public listings do.”

They added an important note – that the community should not abandon what the public deems ‘evil’ games.

“I’ve seen lots of reporters and news sources softball this topic, saying things like ‘well they did get rid of a bunch of really evil porn games, but some innocent queer ones got hit too, which means it is bad,’ and frankly, as a queer creator, I find that attitude incredibly demeaning.

“There’s no room to cede ground and pick and choose what ‘evil games’ are. Even art I personally hate deserves to exist. Cis/straight NSFW game makers are getting hit hard by payment processors too, and now is a time for solidarity rather than division and infighting. Freedom of expression means freedom of expression, and that includes things that might be gross, uncomfortable, or even criminal in reality, because fiction doesn’t have significant bearing on reality.”

They added, “If I can play Call of Duty and gun down an airport full of civilians, why can’t I buy a game that even dares to talk about incest?”

Slitherbop feels the community response to this is, nevertheless, reason for optimism.

“A thought I would see in the [Toxic Yuri VN] server, that I feel too, is that this is motivating to want to keep making transgressive art and go hard with it. It’s been awesome to see people still working on their things. I hope we all keep making the art we want to make no matter what!”

Censorship as another weapon against the marginalized is absolutely unacceptable. Adult fiction, especially including taboo topics banned by Itch like rape or incest is important to defend no matter how “gross” it may seem. For many, it is a way to process trauma that they’ve previously survived. For others, it’s a way to explore complicated themes that are designed to help others who have borne witness to these events in real life. This content is not made to harm survivors; it is made to help and inform them.

Additionally the “think of the children” excuse blindly ignores how this content is already inaccessible to children, and neglects a single unifying fact to all of these works: they are entirely fictional.

No hierarchical body, especially not those controlling the sole means many have to pay their bills and stay alive, should have control over what media people produce and why. Unequivocally, no one is harmed by the production of fictional content involving taboo topics, and no one should have the right to regulate it. Of course, this content is not for everyone, and that is why tags exist in the first place; to help users ignore content they don’t wish to see. This does not mean corporations or the state should have the right to ban it.

At the same time, fascist figureheads are pushing far-right content repeatedly without any such pushback or prohibition from the same companies censoring queer works. Attempts are repeatedly made by bigots to normalize fascism, to treat bigotry as if it's acceptable or funny, all the while pushing marginalized groups out of the very spaces they founded. This is deliberate, as the erasure of queer people involves the resurgence of a hyper-conservative social morality that leads to broad social exclusion.

The solution is simple – we must universally stand with those who are oppressed by those in power, and we must remove fascists from our spaces with every bit of effort we have. We have to stand with the freaks, those most glossed over in our communities, or they will come for us next.

If we do not stand with those of us who are producing works considered fringe by society, then we will all be next in line, and eventually there will be no one left to speak for us. The only way forward is liberation from censorship, poverty, and bigotry for all of us – not just a few.

—Edited by David Forbes

Correction, 8/10, 8pm CST - The user ‘Dusky’ was erroneously referred to as ‘Dusty,’ and was not linked to properly. This has been corrected — we regret the error.

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