

Transgender game developer jumps off bridge after online abuse - danso
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/28/killed-myself-sorry-transgender-game-developer-jumps-off-bridge-after-online-abuse/

======
a_bonobo
There may be a different story behind this:

[http://thecolorffooff.tumblr.com/bluh](http://thecolorffooff.tumblr.com/bluh)

>On April 23rd Rachel posted her goodbye on Twitter and I freaked out and
asked her a bunch of stuff to see if there was absolutely anything I could do
to fix things.

>There, of course, wasn't.

>I asked her why she felt the need to do this. She replied saying that she had
"incurable crippling diseases", specifically "RA + fibromyalgia" (RA I assume
means Rheumatoid Arthritis).

~~~
dalke
How in the world is that a "different story". The WaPo article says:

> Lisa Bryk said her daughter’s illnesses — and not just the abuse she
> suffered online — drove her to suicide. “While Rachel was certainly bullied
> and harassed online, that was NOT the reason she committed suicide,” she
> wrote. “Please pass along info on the abuse that trans individuals endure,
> but let’s also educate people on how difficult it is to live every moment in
> pain. A combination of everything was likely the cause, so let’s not make
> her a anonymous statistic.”

~~~
tantalor
Because it contradicts the headline.

~~~
dalke
There is no contradiction. "... after online abuse" is not the same as "...
due only to online abuse".

Here are other headlines in the last few days: 0) "Tuna company charged after
employee burned to death in oven", 1) "Blue Bell is hoping for a "fresh start"
after a listeria outbreak led to a total recall." 2) "LAPD officer charged
with assault after yet another cop beating caught on camera", 3) "‘This is not
Ferguson': Muddled mantra heard again after Freddie Gray death", 4) "Ricky
Gervais fires back after getting slaughtered over hunting remarks", 5) "Boy
found safe after being abducted during Northern California car theft", 6)
"Five dead in family dispute after hours-long standoff at Phoenix home"

There are so many examples where the phrase "after" is used for a temporal
relationship where there is no direct causal relationship between the two. Eg,
the five dead in (6) did not die because of an hours-long standoff but because
of gunshot wounds.

Why do you think there is a contradiction? What meaning do you assign to
"after" which is also compatible with the 7 other examples I presented?

Personally, I think the g'parent commenter didn't read the article and was
trying to spin the conversation away from the idea that the written word can
cause emotional trauma that might contribute to suicide.

~~~
chrismcb
The headline implies there is a connection between the two events. Just like
the headlines in your 6 examples. For example, the 6 died because of the
standoff, due to gunshot wounds caused by the standoff. It is rare for a
headline to use after solely as a temporal relation.

~~~
dalke
Regarding "Five dead in family dispute after hours-long standoff at Phoenix
home", the gunshot wounds were not caused by the standoff.

The WaPo article is at [http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2015/04/17...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2015/04/17/five-dead-in-family-dispute-after-hours-long-standoff-at-
phoenix-home/) and the source article from ABC is at
[http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/north-
phoenix...](http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/north-phoenix/swat-
team-working-situation-in-north-phoenix) .

> The suspect shot two of his brothers and then his mother came down from
> upstairs and he shot her. Afterwards the suspect went upstairs to find
> others in the home. He reportedly shot and killed a female relative. ...
> "Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was
> coming in," Crump said. "A caller had been able to escape the home at that
> point, get out and start to give us information."

Most, if not all, of the gunshot wounds occurred before the standoff even
started.

I do not understand how you drew the conclusion that the deaths were due to
gunshot wounds caused by the standoff. There's no basis for that in the two
articles I referenced.

Your statement about "solely as a temporal relation" is not relevant. Even if
true about rarity, the article quotes the mother as saying "A combination of
everything was likely the cause". The article deliberately draws a connection
between the online abuse and the suicide, as well as between her illness and
the suicide. The headline picked the aspect that's most likely to draw
attention, which is what headlines are for.

Thus there is no contradiction, only the incomplete information that one must
expect from a headline. (It's a poor headline which says "Someone died.")

------
rjbwork
First, a fewof points of accuracy: Dolphin is an emulator, an extremely famed
one at that. A developer working on it is not necessarily a game developer.
She was a developer on Dolphin, and she was damned good at what she did there
too. Pucca's Kisses is a game, not an emulator. The video linked is a TAS, not
her playing per se.

Onwards: This is saddening. A brilliant programmer and open source
contributor, snuffed out too soon by trolls and bullies. At risk of being
accused of blaming the victim: we need to teach people, especially vulnerable
young folks, to disengage from trolls and bullying online. Shut down your
social media, turn off the computer if you need to. Killing yourself is a vast
overreaction to being bullied on the internet, but can seem like the solution
when you don't have have the proper perspective and tools to deal with the
internet.

I'd also like to take issue with this being called transmisogyny per se. I'm
not denying it exists, or exists within the communities it is accused of
existing in. HOWEVER, trolls are trolls and bullies are bullies. They will
take anything and everything about you that you may be even vaguely insecure
about, and harp on it as hard as possible to get a reaction.

People have been doing this for what is now DECADES on the internet. It's a
trait-agnostic tactic that is not unique to a trans person being bullied or
trolled, or a gay person, or any other trait someone may have, or identity
they may identify with. Painting this kind of behavior with such a narrow
brush misses the point and issue entirely.

------
JonnieCache
I was reading about this on /r/tas yesterday. Apparently she was a key
developer of TAS features on the Dolphin emulator. Here are their tributes to
her: [https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/04/25/commemoration-
rachel...](https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/04/25/commemoration-rachel-bryk/)

~~~
tantalor
TAS = tool assisted speedrun

[http://www.reddit.com/r/tas](http://www.reddit.com/r/tas)

------
Loughla
Maybe my view is messed up, but who goes on 4chan and expects anything but
hatred and ignorance? That is the one and only fact about that site that has
been constant since its inception. To me that's like going to the swimming
pool and being upset because you get wet.

While anger and hateful comments about transgender individuals and the LGBTQ
community in general are prevalent online, isn't there a different site she
could have used?

------
amyjess
Jesus. I'd heard about her death a few days ago, but this is the first time I
heard about _how_ she died.

There have been way too damn many trans suicides lately.

RIP :(

