Ex-Riot Games dev says they were fired for subtweeting about fake trans allyship
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Wednesday 1st June 2022
A former Riot Games developer has accused the company of firing them after subtweeting their frustration with a co-worker over anti-trans attitudes.
"I was fired from Riot Games for vaguely tweeting I was tired of fake trans allies after an ally in the inclusion channel said it's ok to consider my pronouns optional," Yonah Gerber posted in a Twitter thread yesterday.
Gerber, who is currently senior narrative archivist for the Apex Legends and Titanfall universe at Respawn Entertainment, had worked at Riot before Kotaku first reported on a sexist work culture at the League of Legends developer in 2018, and they confirmed having been a source for the site for multiple articles about Riot. However, the reason for their termination had not been covered previously.
A spokesperson for Riot declined to comment.
Gerber told GamesIndustry.biz the company cited violations of its social media policy in firing them. This is not the first time an ex-Riot employee said that the company cut ties for that offence.
Just weeks after the first report on Riot's cultural problems, system designer Daniel Klein said he was fired for social media violations after the company announced plans to host a series of PAX West panels specifically for women and non-binary attendees. When a contingent of respondents decried the exclusion of men from such event, Klein called them "absolute overgrown toddlers" and "manbabies."
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