Clarification: Trans Characters, Groups

[mod63]

Mod R here.

Recent statements do not reflect the discussions by the mod team in the rules-writing phase, and we apologize for the confusion. Here is our position:

• You may nominate canonically trans characters as either M!Character or F!Character, eg. "M!Lup" would be a Lup who identifies and presents as a man, "F!Lup" would be a Lup whose physical body is different. We recognize that it is awkward to have to nominate a character as their canonical gender, but we hope that this will allow participants to request and tell the various kinds of stories that they are interested in.
• Since participants are otherwise required to include at least one swapped character in a nominated tag, if you wish to nominate a trans character "swapped to" their canonical gender and are concerned that the mod team would not be able to tell that the character is canonically trans from a quick search, we suggest that you comment in the evidence post.
• DNWs on characters being written as cis will be enforced in the case of characters who are canonically trans, but not in other cases, eg. you may request "M!Lup" and DNW the character being a cis man, but you may not request "F!Taako" and DNW the character being a cis woman.
• You may prompt for characters to be written as trans who are not canonically trans, or generally include trans themes in your prompts (eg. a character identifying with another gender after being magically 63ed, or alternately feeling body dysphoria), but there is no way to match on this, and creators in turn are expected to treat the subject as opt-in. If you would only be interested in "F!Mario & Luigi" with a trans Mario, do not request or offer this tag.

This guidance supersedes previous posts and comments about how to nominate and request trans characters, which will be cleaned up shortly.

Additionally, we would like to clarify that you may nominate 63ed groups, eg. "F!Amis de l'ABC" in Les Misérables, to prevent needlessly listing every one individually. The language should refer to a clear and discrete group of people, ie. "M!Everyone" is not allowed, and presumes that you wish to see everyone in the group as that gender. If you want to do a full swap of a mixed group, your best bet is probably something like "F!Male Avengers & M!Female Avengers." ("F!Avengers & None" is permitted and would indicate that you want characters like Natasha Romanoff to remain female.)