A free browser-based game, inspired by long-running BBC show Have I Got News For You, asks players to guess whether some of the UK media’s most-bigoted stories are from the 80s or today.
Have I Got Phobia For You takes a handful of headlines from the tabloid press and asks players if they to contain homophobia from the 20th century or transphobia from this one.
“Eighties tabloid headlines about gay people would take our breath away nowadays,” the game’s introduction reads. “But looking at today’s news, there’s a peculiar sense of déjà vu.”
The game’s theme and format are inspired by the light-hearted TV panel show, in which celebrities join Private Eye editor Ian Hislop and comedian Paul Merton to answer questions based on the week’s top news stories.
Headlines shown in the new game include one from The Daily Telegraph in 2018, which bellows: “The tyranny of the transgender minority has got to be stopped.”
Another, published by The Sun in 1998, asks: “Are we being run by a gay mafia?”
After giving all five rounds a go, PinkNews journalists scored 90 per cent.
The developers, A Joint Project London, said the game was made as a “playful way of bringing attention to the often-harmful practices of the mainstream media”.
A spokesperson added: “The 80s and 90s were terrible for anti-gay rhetoric but reading today’s newspapers… the rhetoric is still there but the target has changed. Instead of gays recruiting our kids and stealing our taxes, it’s transgender people. The same phobia, recycled.”
Creative director, Rory Robinson, told PinkNews: “Bigotry is cyclical. And at times like this, when transgender people are facing attacks from every angle, it’s so important for the community to stand together, to let the T know that the LBG firmly stands with them.”
After giving players their score, the game links to statistics from the charity, Stop Hate UK, which highlight that trans people are twice as likely to be the victims of crime in England and Wales compared with their cisgender peers.
The charity has pointed out that that more than 2,630 trans people were the victims of a hate crime in 2020/2021, but 88 per cent of them did not report the incident to the police, while 48 per cent of those who did expressed dissatisfaction with the response.
“Our aim is to remind people that, even though things may have improved for some, they have worsened for others, hopefully playing a tiny role in changing the tone of our mainstream media,” the developers’ spokesperson added.
Have I Got Phobia For You is available to play free on any computer or phone browser by clicking here.
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The post ‘Anti-gay 1980s headline or anti-trans headline from today?’ asks new online quiz appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.