D&D 5E D&D Promises to Make the Game More Queer

[Dellekamp Siefert]

D&D has always done a great job of being inclusive and empowering for people that havent found their community yet. It has naturally asked questions of race and difference. It has shown the benefits of diversity through the role of race and class in party compositions. It is only appropriate that the expand this to include sexual identity. D&D gives hope to those that feel different and im glad they are being a cultural leader with this announcement. Well played.

 

[Morrus]

D&D Promises to Make the Game More Queer

I know MechaPilot is gay. Shouldn't she be keeping her gayness and femaleness to herself? Or do you only call out straight people who announce their straightness?

I think you’re confused. I don’t call out *anybody* on their sexuality. Ever. I was using Frogreaver’s own words to parody him and show him how offensive they were.

What happened was literally the opposite of what you think happened.

 

[Libramarian]

Yes, the difference there is that the heteros are bigots, while the gay people are not.

Or, to be slightly less pointed about it, the difference is that the cultural products we have all been inundated with our entire lives normalize heterosexuality while largely ignoring (if not fully denigrating) homosexuality, thus increasing people's comfort level for open heterosexual affection and decreasing that for open gay affection.

This is exactly why it is so important that cultural products like D&D show the variety of sexual and romantic relationships in the world, to raise comfort levels and eliminate the stigma that the presently under-represented people have to bear.

Does mainstream culture really "normalize" heterosexuality per se? Or is it more precisely monogamous pair bonding? If it's the latter, normalizing gay relationships without propaganda is a challenge because gay men by and large are not monogamous. About half of gay couples are openly non-monogamous. That's about an order of magnitude higher than the rate in hetero relationships. That's a huge cultural difference. Gay relationships in real life look different from hetero relationships, so depicting them accurately is not as easy as swapping out an NPC's wife for another man.

To consistently depict gay relationships in a misleading way that emphasizes their similarities to hetero ones and downplays their differences, for the purpose of "raising comfort levels" about gays and gay marriage, literally is propaganda. Relatively benign propaganda in my view, but still, that's what the word means.

I support the inclusion of gay characters in D&D products, but it smells a bit fishy when they always seem to be "more hetero than the heteros" -- e.g. you meet a pair of older gay men raising a child, etc. I would like to see them depicted in a way, at least once in a while, that acknowledges the fact that they're far more promiscuous and romantically hedonistic.

 

[FrogReaver]

"Your ability to show minimal levels of affection to your partner in a public place is subordinate to my comfort with seeing it" is absolutely marginalizing a person by making something truly fundamental, love and the expression of same, subject to your desire not to see it. You might as well say a person listening to music at a reasonable volume in public has to clear it by you first because you might not like their taste in music.

Okay I think I get what you are saying. See, that's where mutual respect comes in. Unlike so many here you have it!

1. So what if I was to suggest that in order to respect that I may could learn to live with some of it. But what if I requested you be a little more concentious when doing that and try to keep it relatively short and simple?

 

[Sunseeker]

What cares if they are? I mean, really? Tough. That just highlights the problem and *increases* the need for representation.

Yeah, I mean frankly I'm uncomfortable around any PDAs (Blackberrys especially!) but that's on me, not on them.

 

[Peter Saumur]

Y'all pretending the Starter Set didn't have a elderly, gay couple in Nighstone ?

 

[Nagol]

I know MechaPilot is gay. Shouldn't she be keeping her gayness and femaleness to herself? Or do you only call out straight people who announce their straightness?

You might be right. MechaPilot may have provided teat information. Why do I want to know it? What value does it offer? It doesn't affect the truth value of any statements.

 

[Caliban]

Okay I think I get what you are saying. See, that's where mutual respect comes in. Unlike so many here you have it!

Oh...the irony. It hurts.

 

[FrogReaver]

I think you’re confused. I don’t call out *anybody* on their sexuality. Ever. I was using Frogreaver’s own words to parody him and show him how offensive they were.

What happened was literally the opposite of what you think happened.

A discussion like this is the right place to state your sexuality IMO. So I'd say you really need to work on your parody skills

 

[FrogReaver]

This thread is essentially a dozen people telling one guy he’s wrong, and that guy adamantly digging his heels in. The thread may be done.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

Considering you already drove away everyone of a similar opinion to mine it's probably time you go ahead and finish the job. Congrats on the ideological echo chamber you just made!