Texas has been one of many Republican-lead U.S. states pushing to limit or end the rights of transgender people to receive medical care or participate in sports. One proposed law in Texas would actually criminalize parents who accept their children’s identities. To not accept a child’s identity is child abuse. To mandate that child abuse into law would be a new low for Texas. Gearbox, best known for the beloved Borderlands games, has joined a growing list of companies threatening to leave the state over their discriminatory and abusive laws.
Last year, a few tech companies decided to move to Texas, despite the potential for less diverse teams in the state due to the reluctance of women, POC, and LGBTQ people to move to the state. Now, with a new swath of laws looking to attack the civil rights of persecuted groups, the reasoning for moving to—or even staying in—the regressive state have become impossibly thin.
Republican-lead states are sending a clear message to businesses: stay away.
Texas’ New Bills
Texas has joined a number of other Republican-lead states with anti-trans bills that look to make life far more difficult for trans people, despite the science. Social transition and puberty blockers for children are natural, safe, and life-saving. Sports for these kids can be life-affirming, and have give them no advantage. In fact, the only situation in which a trans person had an advantage in sport is when Texas forced a transgender male wrestler to wrestle women. He won. A lot. Because he should have been allowed to compete with the other boys.
One Texas bill would send parents to prison simply for doing what they can to make sure their children have a happy, healthy, hopefully long, life. The bill could even take children away from loving parents and give them to abusive parents who will not affirm the child’s gender. Really. A bill to force child abuse that leads to at least a four-fold increase in the chance of a child attempting suicide. Trans acceptance saves lives, and that includes allowing them to transition, have access to healthcare, and stay with parents who love them.
Texas is trying to pass the most anti-trans bills in the nation. The so-called “small government” party is getting invasive with children’s lives. Right now, Texas is considering 30 laws to hurt trans kids, the parents of trans kids, and limit the rights of transgender adults.
This is a national crisis, and the victims are going to be children.
Gearbox Speaks Up
Gearbox joins businesses like Apple, Amazon, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce, and many others in condemning Texas’ new anti-transgender laws. The company makes one of my favorite game series, Borderlands. It’s a game full of strangely unique gameplay for a first person shooter, interesting characters, unique powers, and lots of humor. If you’re looking for a first person shooter that really breaks the mold, look no further than Borderlands.
Gearbox is currently based in Texas, where it was founded in 1999. However, if it’s up to Texas Republicans, the company may look into expanding outside of Texas. According to David Najjab, Gearbox’s director of institutional partnerships, harmful anti-trans bills have caused the company to consider expanding outside of Texas.
“Again we’re looking at another unnecessary bill. Just like the bathroom bill, this is a solution looking for a problem. … We bring a lot of money into this state. We’re headquartered here. Don’t drive us to where we have to start expanding outside of Texas and outside of the country. … Don’t scare [tech employees] away with laws we do not need. You heard doctors say we don’t need [the bill] … don’t make up stuff.”
– David Najjab, speaking for Gearbox
In 2017, Gearbox also stepped up to the plate for transgender people. Texas was trying to limit the bathrooms people could use to what’s on their birth certificate, ignoring transition. Randy Pitchford, Gearbox CEO stated then, “The kinds of people that are the best in the world at creating technology, at creating entertainment, these are people that do not want to live in places that are seen as discriminatory.” It’s true. Speaking as a software engineer, I’d never work in Texas. The state has woeful problems with racism and sexism, and yet it still tries to make matters worse for people? This isn’t even the first time I’ve written about how bad Texas is for employees in the past year.
If Texas decides to pass these anti-transgender laws, many companies may look to leave Texas, or look to expand outside of the state as Gearbox may consider. Selfishly, I guess I should ask Texas to pass these discriminatory and bigoted laws. They’ll make software engineers like me more valuable in less discriminatory states. But who could sit by silently while these people suffer?
Letter signed by Gearbox and other companies concerned about anti-LGBTQ laws in Texas:
Click to access texas-competes-2021-business-open-letter.pdf
This post has been updated on April 28th, 2021 to clarify Gearbox’s intentions to consider expanding outside of Texas, not moving, if Texas moves foward with proposed anti-transgender laws.