What You Need To Know About the ‘Call of Duty’ Boycott

Last week, the Glendale Unified School District Board held a vote on whether or not Pride Month and LGBT curriculum should be taught, as they have done in previous years. The district sought to combat rampant misinformation, as well as the rise of homophobia and transphobia. However, while the vote was being conducted, anti-LGBT counter-protesters attacked LGBT activists outside of the building. (Once again proving that not even liberal California is safe from homophobes and transphobes.)

Despite the anti-LGBT counter-protesters having started the fight, some people are blaming the pro-LGBTQ protesters for the encounter.

But how did the Call of Duty gaming community get involved with this story?

Nickmercs’ involvement

For some reason, Twitch streamer Nickmercs decided that he had to make his opinion on the altercation known. In a now-deleted tweet, he stated that “They [LGBTQ+ people] should leave little kids alone. That’s the real issue.”

That is a very loaded response and appears to be in line with the entirely incorrect idea that LGBTQ+ people are groomers, pedophiles, and/or are forcing their sexuality onto children. It also completely ignored the fact that the anti-LGBT counter-protesters started the fight.

Queer gamers and activists alike quickly called out Nickmercs for his comments. As a result, Activision has decided to remove the Call of Duty skin associated with Nickmercs from the game.

This, of course, has enraged fans of Nickmercs who argued that he “said nothing wrong” or simply “spoke the truth.”

To which I ask: What is truthful about what he said?

There is an upward trend of suicidal ideation among LGBTQ kids in the past three years. That’s not because of LGBTQ adults, but because of parents, authority figures, and systems who fail to protect and support LGBTQ youth mentally, physically, and emotionally.

And yes, queer curriculum, Pride month celebrations, and having the ability to transition are important parts of that support.

Queerness and gaming

Despite many gamers frequently doling out unhealthy doses of homophobia in-chat, Call of Duty has been relatively supportive of its queer community, having created Pride Flag Calling Cards for players to use in-game last year. In general, queer gamers are a rising force in the gaming world and many companies are wise to court their buying power, rather than risk alienating a potential player base.

Still, many bigoted gamers are now calling to boycott the game and its many spinoffs in solidarity with Nickmercs. However, the Steam charts have shown no significant changes in the number of active players, meaning the effect has been negligible (assuming it wasn’t all talk in the first place).

What I’m more concerned about is the rhetoric. Many streamers like xQc and TIMTHETATMAN are standing by Nickmercs and claiming he did nothing wrong. These streamers have wide audiences and are watched by many children, many of whom seek to mimic their idols.

This could lead to a rising wave of homophobic and transphobic streamers creating bigoted viewers who become real-world bullies. Again, that’s why it’s important to have these discussions with the adolescents in your life about queerness and proper conduct online.

Understanding tolerance and why bullying is wrong from a young age can only help them as they are faced with both intolerance and bullying.

(featured image: Activision / The Mary Sue)