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The issues of representation in the LGBTQ+ wargaming community have been stirring for years, but recent events, especially including a certain paragraph in Games Workshop’s Horus Heresy book, have brought them to a head.

We wanted to take a deep dive into LGBTQ+ wargaming issues, so this week I’m interviewing several members of that community.

Today, we’re interviewing Jennie, who goes by the Twitter handle @VoiceOfKosh.

How Did You Get Into the Wargaming Hobby?

Jennie: Almost twenty years ago my partner told me the story of the Horus Heresy. This was before Horus Rising was released so there was a lot less of it to tell back then, but I was still hooked and I fell in love with the setting of 40k. I wanted to know more about this world and be involved in it. I remember looking through all the armies on the Games Workshop website while my partner gave me a description of each one. Eventually I grabbed myself some Necron Warriors and never looked back.

The Horus Heresy Statement

The Wargame Explorer: I want to talk about the recent Horus Heresy statement that Space Marines need “The hormonal and biological make-up of the human male”. What message do you think this sends to the community? How did you feel when you read it?

Jennie: I mostly felt disappointed. 

The passage is not new. It was written many years ago and just lifted word for word for the new edition of Horus Heresy. However, since it was originally published a lot has changed in the world, including language like that being used as a weapon against minority groups to try and invalidate their existence. When it was originally written those words were questionable perhaps, but fine. Now they cause harm. 

I’m sure it’s an oversight, the people reviewing it may not have been aware of the connotations because they’ve not been subjected to harm by it. Most of the people reading it won’t realise either. But for those that do it hurts. 

There are ways to reword it so the meaning stays the same but the language is not harmful. I think the message that it sends to the community is that we’re not quite there yet. We’re working hard and going in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. And that’s fine, no one is perfect, we should not be judged on the mistakes we make, but on how we rectify them afterwards. Hiring people to review published media would be a great start.

Female Space Marines

The Wargame Explorer: We have long heard talk about better representation within the Space Marines. Why do you think we see female Stormcast Eternals and female Imperial Guard and female Leagues of Votann, but no female Space Marines?

Jennie: I have to start by saying that even though I’m a woman, I’ve never personally felt the need for female Space Marines. I think the reason for this is that for me a Space Marine’s gender is Space Marine. They’re so far removed from human at this point that what they were to begin with doesn’t matter. But I do know that it matters a great deal to some people. 

And Space Marines are iconic and like nothing else in the setting. People want to see themselves as the main characters. They’re so varied in every other way; we have demons, vampires and werewolves; they specialise in spying, siege warfare and close combat. There are even blank spaces to make your own with the two missing legions/primarchs. The stories and characters can be anything you want them to be, anything you can imagine. Except women.

And the counter is always that there are women in Sisters of Battle, Guard and Eldar, or that Tyranids don’t have a gender. But Space Marines are the “main” army in 40k. Whether that’s right is another question, but it’s the way it is, so of course there are a lot of people who want to be a part of that. And those people might not like those other factions. I don’t like Sisters of Battle, personally.

Stormcast Eternals and Leagues of Votann are new, and as such their lore is just being written. (And kudos to Games Workshop for making them more diverse.) Lore is incredibly important to a lot of people and they don’t like it to change. When something is new, it can be whatever it wants to be, but once it’s written down, even a slight change, for example changing or expanding on why a battle was started can upset people.

The weird thing for me in regards to 40k is that they’ve been retconning the lore for years. There used to be female Space Marines right at the beginning, but the story is they didn’t sell well enough and were therefore removed. I don’t know why the one bit of lore that seems to be held onto the tightest is that Space Marines are all made from males.

I also think it’s sad that Games Workshop missed two very good opportunities to introduce women, in the release of Custodes and Primaris Space Marines. Both could have been done in an appropriate and lore respecting way. It still probably would have caused upset among some very vocal people, and I think the main reason we haven’t seen female Space Marines is that Games Workshop just don’t want the backlash from this.

Even if they didn’t feel the time was right to change the lore now, they could have made the decision not to reinforce it, and removed that passage completely. That way it can be whatever you want it to be, which is at the heart of the hobby anyway.

Warhammer Is For Everyone

The Wargame Explorer: Games Workshop has famously said “Warhammer is for everyone”. Do you think that Games Workshop is being sincere, or is it a marketing message?

Jennie: The day before that message was posted to social media in June 2020 I wrote a long thread on twitter about why I thought Games Workshop needed to say something. In the climate I thought it was very important, and I still do. To quote a few sentences from that thread:

“””

40k is a parody of fascism. Most of us know it’s a parody and that it’s abhorrent to behave like that. We understand it’s making a point and we enjoy the story. But some people miss the parody, they think life should be like that and they use the lore of 40k to promote their hate. A company who’s biggest franchise is centered around fascism, hate and intolerance should speak up against those things in real life.

“””

Whether it was just a marketing message or not I still think it was important to say, because saying nothing is still saying something.

But words mean nothing without action. It’s been two years since then and Games Workshop has made changes. We’re seeing more diverse models, community spotlights of more diverse people, and many other things. And it’s great. Therefore I do think the message was sincere and that they’ve taken it to heart. Change takes time so I think some degree of patience is required from us as well.

What Makes You Pessimistic About the Wargaming Hobby?

Jennie: The widening rift between some fans of the hobby. There’s a lot of enmity between people with different mindsets and backgrounds who want different things, especially around the lore. Those who want things to stay exactly as they are and those who feel confronted by certain aspects every time they engage with them.

As an example, if you wanted to paint Caucasian skin there are paints called Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh, but as soon as you reach for the brown paints they are called things like Rhinox Hide and Doombull Brown. Calls to make changes, such as to the names of paint, have been met with anger from vocal people. They think, among other things, that making these small changes to make minority groups in the hobby feel more welcome are ruining their hobby and that people should have thicker skin. 

I personally think that asking for better naming for paints or slightly different wording for a sentence (without changing the meaning) is reasonable and makes the hobby better for people without any significant downsides to anyone else. I’ve seen people say in response “This is why you should gatekeep.” Because they honestly feel that making small concessions to make people feel more comfortable is threatening something they love.

They are two extremes that find it hard to understand each other. And they are clashing more and more aggressively. There is anger and upset on both sides, and I’m worried that this will only get worse.

What Makes You Optimistic About the Wargaming Hobby?

Jennie: When I first started playing 40k almost 20 years ago I was almost always the only woman in Games Workshop. People would stare when I walked in, or staff would hesitantly ask who I was buying for. Now when I walk into a Warhammer store there’s often at least one other woman there, buying themselves something or playing a game. It makes me happy to know that more and more people are getting into the hobby. I hope this can be replicated for many other minorities in the hobby until anyone can walk through the door and not be stared at for being different.

What Message Would You Send to Games Workshop?

Jennie: I think your heart is in the right place and you’ve made some amazing progress, especially recently, making more and more people welcome in the hobby. I appreciate it. I love seeing models with different skin tones, body types and ages. It’s a balancing act, keeping the lore that’s held so dear while striving to move forwards. Having a few diverse people employed to review material would go a long way to keeping everyone happy.