Makani Tran, a teenage Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) player, was disqualified from a tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina, because he appeared to laugh after being asked about his pronouns by a judge.

On the website TwitLonger, which he posted through his Twitter account, Tran explained the reasons for his disqualification.

The young TCG player prefaced his story by saying he was nervous because the tournament was live-streamed, which he described as being “nerve-racking.”

At one point during the tournament, the judge asked both him and his opponent what their preferred pronouns were. In his TwitLonger post, Tran wrote, “Due to the nerves and me being embarrassed, I let out a little laugh, just a normal nervous laugh. My response together ended up being, ‘Um, he or him or, uh, haha his.'”

“The little laugh at the end was because I was trying not to be awkward and… it was kind of silly to me in that scenario,” Tran wrote.

The judge who had asked for his pronouns, however, was not amused. According to Tran’s social media post, the judge replied, “Okay, just wanted to check to be safe. I go by they/them, so don’t be a jerk about it.”

Tran claimed that he “had no clue” he had actually upset the judge and carried on preparing to play.

However, before the round began, some other judges walked over to him and questioned him about what he had said to the judge.

“I explained what happened and that the nervous laugh was because I was embarrassed,” Tran wrote. “During this, I was very polite and calm. I made sure to clearly get my point across and made it extremely clear that I had no intention whatsoever of harming or upsetting anyone.”

Despite Tran’s explanation, the head judge informed him that he had violated their “inclusive policy” because he had made someone “feel unsafe and uncomfortable” and was therefore disqualified from the competition.

“I have NEVER been treated so unbelievably unfairly and had such an opportunity just taken from me,” Tran wrote. “The judge said that while he believed I had no bad intentions, it didn’t matter because, at the end of the day, someone was offended and upset.”

Makani Tran explains in his own words on his Twitlonger account:

This is where it really escalated. The head judge tells me that he was sorry and that it sucked but I was disqualified due to pokemons policy. At this point I’m at the verge of tears but I tried my best to keep my composure. I just couldn’t understand what was happening. Was the judge just not listening to anything I had just told him? Was he trying to look at my side of the story at all? One last time I ask if I can appeal and if there’s anything I could do. I asked to talk to another judge or to the judge that I had upset but all of my requests were refused. The head judge then tells me that it was already done and they had disqualified me. I ask “So you’ve already disqualified me even though I just told you what happened?” and he said “Yes, I know this sucks for everyone involved and I’m sorry we have to do this.” I just start bawling my eyes out. I felt it was so unfair. I was EXTREMELY polite and calm through the entire thing and I felt I handled the situation very professionally and the judges had just not listened to me at all and disregarded everything I had said. In tears I say “you guys didn’t even listen to me at all.” I felt helpless and unheard and unbelievably upset. I told the head judge that I had just spent 800 dollars and took two flights to make it to this event and that I had missed school for this. I said this was my whole life and that I worked so hard to get to this point and that he had just taken it all away from me for no reason. He didn’t care at all. He once again said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do about it.  

Not only was Tran disqualified from the tournament, but he was also told that he was banned from the venue.

Makani explains how he contemplated suicide over his disqualification:

This is a very personal topic for me but I’m going to go over it anyways because I need people to understand what I was going through. In the past years I had been extremely suicidal and depressed and after years of medication and therapy and working through it all I was finally starting to be better. I was stable and going to school and doing things on my own. Life was good. I hadn’t had suicidal thoughts in a while until this event. As I was sitting down crying my in disbelief, I get up and say “I’m going to kill myself” and start walking away from the stage. A staff member who had been watching me (r******s dad) followed me outside the venue and had to escort me until I was upstairs and sat down. I just sat there in shock and tears and he said he had to cut my wristband off. I was out of energy at this point and I raised my arm so he could cut my wristband. I sat down for a good 20 minutes until my friend I had called finished his round and came to see me. I told him everything that happened crying during the whole story and he consulted me. He gave me his phone in case I needed to call anyone and had to go back downstairs to play his round. For the next 30-45 minutes I sat there saying nothing shocked hurt and traumatized by everything.

When I say I was close to running outside into the middle of the road I’m not joking. I do not mess about with this topic it is not something I take lightly WHATSOEVER. What i’m trying to say is that the way I was treated made me feel so upset and treated so unfairly that I was nearly running into the middle of the road and getting ran over. I wanted it all to be over I was just done with everything there was no point of anything for me. My dream of winning a regional with my own deck with my deck I had put so much time and work into, was just taken from me. I missed school I lost hundreds of dollars traveled across the country for what? Nothing, it was all for nothing. Im being completely honest with everyone when I say have never been this upset in my entire life. I never want to feel like this again. I think the judges overall handled the situation terribly and I was treated like garbage.

So, in other words, a woke judge was able to steal the dreams of a young boy who found something that made him happy after dealing with thoughts of suicide and serious depression, because he laughed when he was asked his pronouns? When is America going to stop allowing the LGBTQ+ Mafia to stop intimidating others simply because they refuse to buy into their wordsmithing game?