Since the initial release of Grand Theft Auto 5 back in 2013, the game has been plagued with both homophobic and transphobic content that many had widely noticed. Recently, fans have started to notice that the transphobic content in the game was “silently” removed by the devs.
Recently, a redditor had compared the PS4 version of the game with the next-gen version and found out that the “interchangeable genitalia” of the Captain Spacetoy action figure was removed in the next-gen version, confirming that Rockstar has indeed removed transphobic content.
Kirsty Cloud, a GTA community admin, had also reported that the “drag queens” around the Cockatoos nightclub were removed. However, the “drag queen” models were still available in Director’s Mode. The protagonist's dialogue lines telling NPCs about hormones were also deleted.
Back in September, Out Making Games, a gaming industry LGBTQ+ advocacy group, expressed their concern to Rockstar Games about the removal of transphobia from the game. They sent a letter hoping that Rockstar will do something about it in the near future. Recently, Rockstar had heard their plea and agreed to remove the transphobic content from their game. Out Making Games was delighted to hear the good news and thanked the developers in a tweet.
Fans appear to believe that the reason Rockstar has been so quiet about removing transphobic content from the game is due to Out Making Games' complaint about transphobia.
Fans and players of the GTA series are hoping that the removal of transphobic content from the game has given the LGBTQ+ community in the gaming industry some solace.