{"id":70428,"date":"2022-09-09T02:32:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T02:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/games-done-quick-cancels-florida-event-over-dont-say-gay-laws\/"},"modified":"2022-09-09T02:32:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T02:32:57","slug":"games-done-quick-cancels-florida-event-over-dont-say-gay-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/games-done-quick-cancels-florida-event-over-dont-say-gay-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Games Done Quick cancels Florida event over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The video game charity event Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 will not be taking place in Florida as planned. In an announcement Thursday, the event’s organizer, Games Done Quick (GDQ), said it does not believe Florida to be \u201ca safe place for our community at this time,\u201d citing the state’s covid-19 protocols and Parental Rights in Education Act ( known colloquially as the \u201cdon’t say gay\u201d law).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Games Done Quick is a semiannual event featuring speedruns, where gamers rush through a video game with the goal of finishing it as quickly as possible through careful planning, skill and often leveraging a game’s bugs in ingenious ways. For nearly a decade, Awesome Games Done Quick was held in the DC area until 2020 when GDQ hosted the event in Orlando. This year’s event was to mark Awesome Games Done Quick’s return as an in-person event (2021 and 2022 were virtual events due to coronavirus measures), but it is now planned to be purely virtual once more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhile we would love to return in-person, we’ve determined that to provide a safe and welcoming event to all, it was best that we move away from our originally planned location in Florida,\u201d wrote GDQ on its website. \u201cGiven the state’s continued disregard for covid-19’s dangers (including anti-mandate vaccination policies) and an increased aggression toward LGBTQ+ individuals, including the law colloquially known as ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ we do not believe it is a safe place for our community at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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GDQ’s winter event, Awesome Games Done Quick, is held every January to raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. GDQ has prominently featured trans gamers in its events as both hosts and creators. It also started Frame Fatales, an all-women speedrunning event for the Malala Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to girls’ education, which was co-founded by Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Women make awesome games.’ This summer camp helps them make more.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the statement, GDQ said it had originally secured a Florida venue for 2021’s event but postponed its use due to the pandemic. After seeking out other venues to host Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 in person, GDQ said the cost of paying out its current venue’s cancellation fee and finding a new one were too much. The event organizers did not specify the name of the venue in the release and did not respond to questions from The Post at the time of publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhile the move to online will allow us to save some on expenses, we still have considerable costs to recover,\u201d wrote GDQ on its website. \u201cWe are looking to recover that money where possible, including with community support via Twitch subs. We thank the community for their support!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Games Done Quick, which was founded by Northern Virginia native Mike Uyama, has raised over $35 million for charity since its inaugural event in 2010. The organization runs two events each year dedicated to different charities: Awesome Games Done Quick in the winter for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Summer Games Done Quick in the summer for Doctors Without Borders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which was championed by and signed into effect by the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), places restrictions on classroom discussions regarding gender, sexual orientation and LGBTQ issues. The White House has described the law as thinly veiled attack on LGBTQ rights, calling it \u201cdiscrimination, plain and simple\u201d in an official statement. The law has also been condemned by dozens of major corporations including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Starbucks and Target. In March, Disney announced it would be halting all political donations in Florida due to the law after the company’s own workers CEO Bob Chapek for not taking action sooner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Awesome Games Done Quick 2022, speedrunner Mitchriz beat FromSoftware’s \u201cSekiro: Shadows Die Twice\u201d (a notoriously hard title from a developer famed for creating brutally difficult games) in just two hours \u2014 while blindfolded. Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 raised a total of $3.4 million from thousands of donors who watched the event online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 will run from Jan. 8 to 15, 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The video game charity event Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 will not be taking place in Florida as planned. In an announcement Thursday, the event’s organizer, Games Done Quick (GDQ), said it does not believe Florida to be \u201ca safe place for our community at this time,\u201d citing the state’s covid-19 protocols and Parental Rights …<\/p>\n

Games Done Quick cancels Florida event over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":69556,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gdq-cancels-speedrun-event-in-florida-over-states-covid-anti-lgbtq-policies\/","url_meta":{"origin":70428,"position":0},"title":"GDQ cancels speedrun event in Florida over state’s COVID, anti-LGBTQ policies","date":"September 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Games Done Quick, the organization that runs speedrunning marathons for charity, announced Wednesday that next year's Awesome Games Done Quick will take place Jan. 8-15, 2023. But the wintertime event, previously scheduled to be held in Florida, will remain online-only, organizers say, citing that state's approach to COVID-19 and \u201cincreased\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70124,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/awesome-games-done-quick-2023-goes-online-only-after-florida-deemed-unsafe-for-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":70428,"position":1},"title":"Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 goes online only after Florida deemed unsafe for community","date":"September 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"2023's Awesome Games Done Quick event, which will see expert players from around the world highlight their skills by beating games as quickly as possible, will be held virtually between 8th January and 15th January next year. This event was initially planned to be an in-person event, however, the organizer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69832,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/awesome-games-done-quick-abandons-live-event-because-florida-is-not-a-safe-place-for-our-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":70428,"position":2},"title":"Awesome Games Done Quick Abandons Live Event Because Florida Is ‘Not A Safe Place For Our Community’","date":"September 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Governor Ron DeSantisFlorida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantisThe next major Games Done Quick event, January's Awesome Games Done Quick, will be an online-only event after the show's organizers released a statement saying, \u201cWe do not believe [Florida] is a safe place for our community,\u201d in light of the state's putrid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69597,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/awesome-games-done-quick-2023-cancels-its-live-event-in-florida\/","url_meta":{"origin":70428,"position":3},"title":"Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 cancels its live event in Florida","date":"September 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Awesome Games Done Quick, the winter companion to Summer Games Done Quick, will be held online next year in 2023. In a tweet, the Games Done Quick organization announced that instead of hosting an in-person event in Florida, it would return the speedrunning charity livestream event to an online format.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/MILXX44LM5EG3CRX6S7IA644ZE.jpg&w=1440","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}