Update: I've been able to play normally again without the bug happening, apparently loading into explore nyc mode first somehow fixes it, maybe the map isnt preloading properly somehow so actually loading it up fully beforehand fixes it? idk, im not good with tech.
HOWEVER. I played again...
This has been happening for me with normal matches as well.
Except for me it doesnt crash, just has a long loading screen and then returns me to the lobby.
When a character who isnt portrayed as a villain or in the wrong for doing so says them, it's an issue. It's not that homophobic characters existing is wrong, it's the framing that's the problem.
They don't "require" real world implications, they literally cannot be made without real world implications. Everything exists within context. There isnt a work of fiction in existance that just sprang up out of nowhere with no implications.
Yeah I don't know what they were thinking with this. Valve is clearly interested in getting queer people into deadlock since they made pocket nonbinary and a whole bunch of the other characters are queer coded but now every time I play the game I have to hear a preist screaming about "purging...