GTA: Rockstar Games finally removes transphobic content from next-gen versions of Grand Theft Auto 5

Rockstar Games has edited and removed all transphobic character models and elements from GTA V in the next-gen version of the game. Kirsty Cloud, the admin on GTANet, a Grand Theft Auto community site, reported the changes on Twitter.

Offensive dialogues were also removed from the game which were said by the protagonist from GTA V. The game files refer to the game’s transgender models as “drag queens”.

Out Making Games, a UK-based LGBTQ+ community group from the gaming industry, wrote an open letter to Rockstar Games last year. They urged the gaming studio to remove all the offensive and derogatory content from the game when it gets released for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Out Making Games said in the letter that “the game appears to purposefully play into extremely harmful stereotypes of trans and gender diverse people to encourage players to be repulsed by them and even to relish hurting and killing them.”

Rockstar Games has disabled several character models from appearing in the game. Kirsty pointed out that the trans caricatures were disabled from spawning outside Cockatoos which is a nightclub in GTA V. However, he also confirmed that the models are still spawning in the game’s Director Mode. Still, there are no options available for dialogue. This also suggests that the protagonist's dialogue lines were removed.

A Reddit user JayProspero noticed that Rockstar Games has also removed a texture/prop of the Captain Spacetoy figure in the game that had “interchangeable genitalia”. The game has replaced the figure and has added an alternate figure which reads “posable vomit direction”.

Out Making Games welcomed the move by Rockstar Games and thanked them on Twitter for removing transphobic content from GTA 5’s next-gen version which was released in March. Transphobic elements have existed in the game for the last nine years since its release in 2013.

This was not the first time Rockstar Games was called out and asked to remove controversial content from its games. The studio had removed the Confederate flag when they released the remastered version of the GTA Trilogy.

Rockstar Games is currently working on the next Grand Theft Auto game, as confirmed by the studio in February. Hopefully, the studio would look to better represent the LGBTQ+ community in its next title.