Premise
A world where gender-affirming care is banned, and TERFs have taken control. Their take over was violent and senseless and caused the loss of all birth records. They now come together to create a gender-identification system to root out trans people and they want you to code it up.
The player’s role is to be the software developer kidnapped by the TERF government to help them create a program that identifies people’s gender without the aid of birth records. If the player doesn’t do as they say, they threaten to cast the player out of their society.
Throughout the narrative, the player as the software developer asks the group to describe their process in identifying someone’s gender without trying to anger/upset the group. Because, well how do you assign gender?
Plot points could explore
facial hair: they try to use peoples’ history of getting hair removal services which are gender-affirming care ( laser hair removal, waxing, threading, etc) and face the reality that people AFAB also grow facial hair due to genetics or conditions like PCOS and it is super normal while at the same time there are men who can not grow facial hair or prefer clean shaven looks.
breasts: now that gender-affirming care is banned, all forms of breast removal and augmentation are banned. They try to visually identify people by amount of breast tissue but face the reality that women can be flat-chested and men can not be (gynecomastia), and AFAB and AMAB also are interested in breast augmentation and removal for all kinds of reasons.
hormones: they think surely they can track people down by using peoples’ pharmacy history but in the end find that cisgender people who are AFAB and AMAB both have a wide variety of reasons why they would also take hormones.
In the end, if the player is able to navigate these conversations successfully, the TERFs end up exhausted, humiliated and shocked that they could have been so wrong about gender-affirming care and that everything they thought they understood about people generally and trans people specifically was incorrect. They become hyper aware of your presence… They attempt to double down on their beliefs and eliminate you because it is easier than facing their new reality. Good thing you were live-streaming everything to the world <3
