LGBTQ Game Censorship Rises Under Trump

Baldur’s Gate 3 Star Exposes LGBTQ Game Censorship Surge Under Trump-Era Pressure

By: Paul Goldberg, Senior Editor | JRL CHARTS – LGBT Politics USA

LAS VEGAS — (July 21, 2025) — As political tensions in the U.S. intensify around LGBTQ+ visibility, even video game storylines are being reshaped behind the scenes — and not for the better.

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According to Baldur’s Gate 3 star Samantha Béart, developers are quietly cutting queer storylines from in-development games to avoid conservative backlash. Béart, who plays Karlach in Larian Studios’ critically acclaimed RPG, told VideoGamer that entire LGBTQ arcs are being erased due to rising anti-LGBTQ pressure since the Trump administration returned to power in late 2024.

“Their storylines have been cut,” Béart revealed. “Historically, appeasement is a really bad thing.”

Despite Baldur’s Gate 3’s celebrated inclusion of queer characters and diverse romances — which helped it secure Game of the Year honors and global fan acclaim — Béart fears a wave of censorship is now sweeping across the AAA gaming world.

“A game with the same amount of diversity as BG3 likely wouldn’t get greenlit today,” they said.

Instead, Béart predicts that truly inclusive storytelling will shift toward indie studios and smaller development teams willing to stand up for LGBTQ narratives — a sharp contrast to mainstream publishers now actively sanitizing content.

“Indies exist,” Béart affirmed. “Communities will get together, and we’ll get through this.”

This censorship trend isn’t limited to games. Even Disney has recently pulled LGBTQ+ themes from projects under political pressure. Reports surfaced that a transgender storyline was removed from the Pixar series Win or Lose, and early drafts of Elio — initially written by queer director Adrian Molina — were allegedly scrubbed of gay-coded elements prior to release.

For now, all eyes are on whether Larian Studios will continue its bold representation in future titles, or if it too will face mounting pressure to play it safe.

Follow JRL CHARTS for ongoing coverage of LGBTQ politics, censorship trends, and the future of queer media storytelling.