LGBT in Video Games: Has It Gotten Better?

     Recently it has been announced that an upcoming game for the Nintendo 3DS, Fire Emblem: Fates, will allow same sex marriages. This is a big thing considering last year we had the big incident with another 3DS game, Tomadachi Life. If you don't remember, there was a bit of controversy when Nintendo made a statement that it was going to fix a glitch that would allow people to marry the same sex in Tomadachi Life. Nintendo later on, after seeing the backlash, apologized and said that they will include same sex marriages in later games. Reflecting on this, I have to wonder if as a gay man and an avid lover of video games, has things gotten better for me? Am I being represented?
     Same sex relationships isn't the new frontier in video games. It has been in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Just after the Tomadachi Life controversy Square Enix allowed same sex relationships and weddings in its Final Fantasy XIV MMO. There was even a pride parade supporting this. This seems very profitable in games that let you customize your character, but what about games that don't?
     As being represented in games we have come a long way. Over the years, we have had gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters represented in games. Has it gotten better? In some ways it has. The roles of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders in video games has progressed over time. The most obvious example has been The Last of Us. The Last of Us was one of the games where they had people who were LGBT, not only Ellie and Riley, but also characters Bill and Joel. Mortal Kombat X was the most recent game where one of the new characters Kung Jin was implied to be gay in a cinematic and was later confirmed to be gay by one of the creators. These characters were written as people you can see being real genuine people instead of stereotypes that often end being portrayed in video games, but in media as well.
     While this is still good, the progression is still slow and being represented in games still seems to be a closeted thing. Gay characters are in games, but mostly they end up being supporting characters and rarely do we ever get them to be protagonists, people we control in the first place and the majority of the game. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to see people who are gay in video games, but I would like to see me being represented more than just a supporting character.
     I'm not going to lie as society progresses, we see more demand for art and media to progress as well. We are starting to see this in games, just like we're seeing better female representation in games thanks to Anita Sarkessian who has been advocating feminism and pretty much has been laying down the issues of negative female tropes in video games. Just like that,we are starting to see the ball roll a bit faster. When we see more games with protagonists who are gay, that's where I can see progress.

LGBT Couples in Video Games

Valentine's Day is here! In celebration of today (and since I have no plans for the day because I'm single T_T), I decided to do a post about the romantic couples in video games. I could've done the usual. I could've done Link and Zelda, Mario and Peach, and Sonic and Amy, but that would've been normal, and boring. Instead I decided to do a post about LGBT couples in video games. As a gay person who plays video games, it's nice as well as important to not only see me being represented in video games, but to see LGBT couples in games as well. It almost helps spread that message that says that my love is no different than your love and counteracts homophobia that some people have in not only in the gaming community, but in society as well. With no further due, here are the LGBT couples in gaming.

Birdo and Yoshi


Let's get started with the most famous: Birdo and Yoshi. Yoshi, even though is considered to be gender neutral, is mostly associated as a male. Birdo's gender has been controversial from the very start. According to the instruction booklet of Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario USA in Japan), Birdo, or Catherine, is described as a boy who think he is a girl. This is further confirmed with not only the Japanese commercial for Super Mario Bros. 2, but in Captain Rainbow for the Nintendo Gamecube. Birdo and Yoshi have been a couple and have had great chemistry in most of the Mario Spin-offs like Mario Party 7 and Mario Tennis. Mario Kart: Double Dash's japanese website has jokingly stated: "Catherine appears to be Yoshi's girlfriend... or does that mean boyfriend!?" (「ヨッシーの彼女に見えて実は彼氏!?」).

Rudolph Gartheimer and Damian Shade


Rudolph and Damian both hail as the Fighting genre's first openly gay couple. Groove on Fight was released by Atlus in 1997. While not as popular as the Street Fighter series or SNK, Groove on Fight was a cult classic in Japan. Damien (17) is an orphan and was adopted by Rudolph (45). They are polar opposites as Rudolph is considered to be a very aggressive while Damian is a pacifist. They seem to be very protective of each other, Rudolph being more protective as when playing as Rudolph, Damian is usually seen in the back watching the fight when playing as Rudolph.

Venom and Zato-1


Zato and Venom are both characters from the Guilty Gear series. Venom was an orphan that was was about to be kill when Zato-1 saved Venom's life. Ever since then Venom has dedicated his life to Zato. Venom is fiercely loyal to Zato. Most of his action in the series is either doing what Zato says or looking for his master. Even when Zato-1 died, Venom was devoted to tracking down his killer, Millia Rage, and killing her. Sadly the love isn't really returned as Zato has a thing for Millia, who he also hates.

Crystal and Amber Bailey from Dead Rising

Crystal and Amber are twin sisters that both work as hostesses of the show Terror is Reality in Dead Rising 2. They also work as Tyrone King's bodyguards. Both of the twins are very flirtatious saying innuendos throughout the game and even flirting with you during the boss fight. Amber also gropes Rebecca. These two are close. Very close. The cutscene when you kill the one of the twins does say that there is something more to them just being twins.

Ellie and Riley


Ellie and Riley are two characters from The Last of Us. Their relationship pretty much plays like a romantic comedy in a zombie apocalypse. They both meet during a zombie epidemic and mostly everyone is dead and they form a friendship where they pretty much have each others back. Throughout the game, their friendship does blossom into something serious and touching. The creator, Neil Druckmann, has talked about their relationship and confirmed that both Ellie and Riley do both have feeling for each other.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Your avatar and Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, and Dorian

When Dragon Age: Inquisition came it, it came with the possibility of your character being able to not only have a relationship with a person in the game, but with a select few people regardless of gender. You can have opposite and same sex relationships. This isn't new. Inquisition isn't the only game in the Dragon Age series to have this option. Origins had the option to marry someone of the same sex. You can pick from four out of the eight characters in the game: Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, Dorian. Here's how to can court them.

Are there any couples I missed? If so, please let me know in the comments section. Also, Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

Feeling Prideful

     In the past few days at work, I've been asked not once, but twice by my co-workers whether I would be going to the Pride Festival this Sunday. I reluctantly said that I wouldn't. My reason was that I would be working that night and I didn't feel like being out in the heat, taking the bus and train downtown to Halsted where they always have the parade, and rushing all the way downtown to get to work that afternoon. Reflecting on my co-workers asking me about pride, I realized just how far we've come as gay people have progressed towards equality in society.
     When I was taking a few steps coming out the closet, being gay and going to gay pride would almost feel like a secret that only a few knew about. Like every other gay person before they came out, I was afraid to let people know of this secret. Now, it's not that big of a secret anymore. Everyone knows and they seem to be ok with it. We have came far. Over the years, we have marched on to combat ignorance and hate. The world is starting to accept us.
     I see us in media. We have shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and Ellen that shows we can do things. We have characters in books and TV that represent us in all different spectrum and tell our stories. We even have our own channel, LOGO. I see us in music. Not only do we have gay rappers like Fly Young Red and Le1f to name a few, but we have people in Hip Hop like Kanye West and T-Pain, another genre that didn't accept us, that have spoken against the homophobia in the genre.
     We are in sports. In the past year, we have professional athlete like Darren Young, Michael Sam, Derreck Gordon, Jason Collins, and Tom Daley who have come out. Bravely dispelling the stigma that Sports is no place for us since we are not "manly enough" and have been given mostly support and love from fans and their peers alike. We have President Obama who seems to be the first president to not only acknowledged us, but gas been on our side. We have passed gay marriage in a total number of 19 states, including one where I live in, Illinois. We have come so far, but we have more to do and more to go.

Fred Dropped Dead

   

     The founder and former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church Fred Phelps has been pronounced dead. For those who haven't heard of Phelps or the Westboro Baptist Church, it is a church that was led by him and his family members. The Westboro Baptist Church is notorious for picketing soldier funerals, damning 9/11 victims, and spreading anti-gay rhetoric declaring that "God Hates Fags." The church is very vocal about what God apparently hates, which isn't only exclusive to dead soldiers and "fags", but America, celebrities, the world, and pretty much everything else you or they can think of. Looking on the last few years of his life you get a perspective that for a majority of it he has wasted it by being an example of ugliness and bigotry and choosing to hold hate in his heart for anyone that wasn't like him.
     Hate isn't a healthy thing to have in your life. Hate is like an anchor. It holds you down, sinking you beneath the waters leaving you to drown. It prevents you from being human and enjoying life. As being the loving Christian he claims to be, it would have been more productive if Phelps had spent most of his life loving God's creation instead of trying to find ugliness in everything and spend every waking moment despising everything based on your narrow view of the world. Life is too short and wonderful to spend most of it focusing on what you see as wrong. You have to let that hate go in order to truly live.
    I should be shouting to the top of my lungs Ding Dong Fred Phelps is dead. But, I won't. That would be what he wanted. That would be what his congregation which thrives on hate and hating others in order to live would want and inspect. I will not give them that satisfaction. As a gay man, I should hate him. Fred was the face of homophobia in religion. He was the guy that tells you that you are an abomination because it's what the bible says. He was the reverend that tells your parents you are no longer deserving of their love and that they should be tossed aside like trash for not living up to God's standards. He was the person represents the serious flaw in religion and why many are turning their backs from it. He was what the people who claim they just hate the sin, not the sinner really are inside. Fred represented the ignorance and how evil people can twist what is suppose to be good into their own sick ideas and agendas. Instead, I will just pity him, reflect on sad his life was, and try live mine for the better. Let Fred be an example that you should love your fellow man like God says, instead of condemning them, treating them like they are less than human.

Sports and Homophobia

   

     On Thursday, gay activist and former Minnesota Vikings player, Chris Kluwe wrote a story for Deadspin. Kluwe makes the accusation that he was fired from being punter for the Vikings for being a LGBT activist and his support for gay rights. In the article, Kluwe states that he has been called in the office several times by coach, Mike Priefer, demanding him to stop speaking for gay rights which in a course of months resulted in his termination with the Vikings.

"It's my belief, based on everything that happened over the course of 2012, that I was fired by Mike Priefer, a bigot who didn't agree with the cause I was working for, and two cowards, Leslie Frazier and Rick Spielman, both of whom knew I was a good punter and would remain a good punter for the foreseeable future, as my numbers over my eight-year career had shown, but who lacked the fortitude to disagree with Mike Priefer on a touchy subject matter."

      Further into the article, you get a story of how Kluwe was ostracized by his fellow peers (his coaches, other officials, and even a fellow teammate) for speaking out for gay rights. Reading the article, you get a look at how deep homophobia runs in the sports industry. Often, you openly hear homophobic remarks from sports fans, locker room talk among college and high school athletes, some coaches, and even some of the professional athletes themselves. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Before we can solve the problem, we must get to the root of the problem.
      One of the many factors that contributes to homophobia is gender socialization and dominance. One of the reasons some people are hateful towards gay people is because, according to them, gay people do not fit the traditional roles of masculinity. Most of the opponents of gay rights declare that homosexuality "just isn't right." Men are suppose to act a certain way and are suppose to like women and if they don't something is wrong. This is just how they think. Dominance is big in sports. You have to be the best and being stronger and better than someone is important. Once again, gender socialization rears its ugly head as the masculinity is the ultimate form of dominance. A man is the dominate being. If you don't fit the classification of a man, you are inferior. That is usually the case where people who are gay are often bullied and viewed as being "limp-wristed" and weak. One possible solution to the this problem is if we can change the views on gender socialization. These people who are homophobic need to realize that gender roles are not so very black and white and not everyone fits into these roles perfectly. If they realize that, a lot of the problems with homophobia in sports will end.
      Luckily, there have been some progress. In 2013, there have been a athletes like, Jason Collins and Sharnee Zoll-Norman, have come out that are still playing. This is huge because you would hear an athlete coming out when they were retired and not in the sports industry. It also gives hope to people who are playing sports that are in the closet by telling them that it's alright to come out. There have been some athletes like Brendon Ayanbadejo, that are publicly in support of gay rights. In April of last year, the NHL has gotten involved in dealing with homophobia in sports. There are still some huge problems with homophobia in the sports industry, but at least we are moving forward.

Do you feel like it's getting better? Please comment.

Your Obligatory Famous Person Coming Out Post

     So, earlier this week, British Olympic Diver, Tom Daley posted a video announcing that he was bisexual and rumors are circulating that he is in a relationship with Milk Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. As a result of him posting the video, Tom has garnered tons of support from his fans and others online. The tons of support he has gotten, not to mention the growing support and legalization of gay rights and marriage here in the U.S and other countries, and the ending of DOMA shows how far we have gotten in supporting the LGBT community.
     Years ago, it possibly wouldn't have been possible for Tom to come out. I remember the absolute fear of being disowned by my family when I was younger and tossed out of my home, along with other people who were living in the closet. Back to the subject, with LGBT characters being portrayed in the media, countless protests and brave activists, and other public figures before Tom coming out has giving people an insight of who we really are and has allowed them to become more accepting of us. We have made huge leaps and bounds towards equality, but the question I'm raising is how much further do we have to go?