My name is Leona Faren. I am a former game developer who worked on The Elder Scrolls and Fallout from 2018-2022. From 2022-2025, I was involved in a legal battle against Zenimax and Microsoft fighting for trans rights in the gaming industry after having had my medical coverage held hostage by them in order to push me out of the company. This is after facing years of daily harassment from my supervisor. I recorded many of the toxic conversations I had while I was still employed at Zenimax, and published them all online in order to whistleblow and bring attention to their worker mistreatment.

Here is a link to a relevant news article

And the video I uploaded containing the recordings

Following this battle, a worker's union was formed and a historic union contract was signed with Microsoft. This contract includes protections that will prevent what had happened to me from happening to anyone else at a Microsoft Games Studio ever again. I am proud of the impact I made by speaking up and bringing attention to the discriminatory practices of these studios.

Here is a link to a relevant news article

This all came at great personal cost. Between the lawsuit, and the very public corporate whistleblowing, I suffered an intense level of (if you'll excuse the pun) fallout. I was stalked by online bullies, affecting my personal life and relationships. I burned through all of my savings, 401k, everything, in order to keep the lawsuit afloat. It wasn't about winning, it was about making their mistake as expensive as possible for them so that I could sleep soundly knowing that it would never happen to anyone else after me. In that, I was successful, but now it is impossible for me to find employment due to having my name attached to many news articles about the lawsuit, whistleblowing, and having fought back against a former employer. Without the ability to find employment, eventually I ended up homeless for almost a year, from October 2024 to July 2025. During this period of time I was attacked and had my life threatened by monsters who had caught wind of who I was and would terrorize and threaten me daily. This has all left me with deep scars, both mental and physical.

The only way I found to pull myself out of that situation was through sex work. Since then, the income I've accrued by doing pornography has allowed me to slowly find some stability. I now have a roof over my head, and continue to do adult entertainment as a way to make ends meet. However, this is not a long-term solution. I need the bandwidth to be able to rebuild a sustainable career. I only see that being possible through networking, and the support of others. I created this fundraiser as a step in that process.

Please help with rebuilding my life. I lost the majority of all my belongings. I still sleep on a camper mattress on the floor. I don't have...much of anything, really. I rely heavily on the support of local friends since re-establishing myself in a new location, and need to be able to do better not just for myself, but for them as well. My battle against the discrimination I faced in the gaming industry cost me everything and left me with nothing except for what I could fit in my car. I need to rebuild, and I can't do it alone.

My Artstation

My LinkedIn

My LinkTree (warning: contains links to nsfw content)

For what it is worth, if there is something of personal value that I've gained from my experiences, it's learning that I'm a tenacious brick wall of a bitch. Your support would not be wasted on me. Thank you, everyone, for all of your love and generosity.

Your ally,

Leona Faren