Lesbian flag and "more to come"
I unfortunately couldn't watch the stream yesterday, but I've seen the flags, the lack of a lesbian one in other things, and the repeated "more to come" response to people asking about it.
I know BHVR isn't trying to be harmful on purpose, not so much because I believe a company can be LGBT+ friendly just because they're that nice, but because being homophobic on the first day of pride month is not good for business unless bigots are your target (which is obviously not the case here).
I just felt like maybe we should discuss that it's a bit weird and quite uncomfortable to pick and choose who gets to be celebrated and in what order, and also to decide to leave out Lesbians in particular, who have quite an unfortunate history of being left out of LGBT+ content, merch and celebrations (not only by companies but also by LGBT+ associations and the like).
Most lesbians have been made aware their flag is coming sooner later, and (I've scrolled through all the QRTs so believe me on that) they're still not happy. They're not excited about getting their charm later, they're just wondering why do they have to wait, why do they come last, despite being the first letter of the acronym at that.
I know it's not the only flag left out, but it's the only flag left out that we know is already in the files and had leaked along with the other flags which are already available, so while we can just justify the gay flag being missing bc "it wasn't there in the first place so they have to make it and add it" we know you already have the lesbian flag and decided to just.. not release it, which is why the whole thing feels quite uncomfortable.
Which leads it to my second point: Why do lesbians have to wait for "more to come" ?
My very simple guess is that a female character (my hope bet is on Yui) will be announced to be a Lesbian character. If that's the case, it still doesn't justify having to wait for the charm, if anything there's probably going to be at least a handful of people who will believe you announced a lesbian just to make them forget about the flag delay. If that's not the case, I can hardly imagine whatever is "more to come" will justify the delay and make lesbians less mad.
Also, as much I would love more LGBT+ characters, only announcing one of them every pride month (and then forgetting about them the rest of the year), teasing it and dragging it for who knows how long across pride month along celebrations just feels performative (? not sure that's the right word ngl)
I mean after all BHVR is still a company who benefits from all those things, and companies "virtue signaling" during pride month is not at all surprising, but handing us a gay character every pride month to keep us happy doesn't feel that great (even more so that since David was announced gay he barely got anything even though he was quite popular before).
I'm still happy about getting all those flags and would be absolutely thrilled if a woman is confirmed lesbian, but the current situation is a bit uncomfortable so I figured I'd share my thoughts.
(Gotta go catch up on the stream now, bye 👋 and happy pride month)
Comments
So you actually agree there should be more diverse LGBTQ+ representation in media after all, because you agree that the current representation isn’t actually representative. Great that we could clear that up, didnt seem like it in your first post at all.
What do political and religious ideologies even have in common with LGBTQ+ representation?
LGBTQ+ people existing is not a political ideology. Sorry but this is only showing something about you.
and disabled survivors are represented. Ash is an amputee, Renato is autistic, there are multiple survivors with glasses, Yui is cross-eyed. I agree they could do more in this regard though.
video games are media and especially this one has had backstories for their characters from the very beginning.
Not everyone was happy and heterosexuality was shoved down everyone’s throat, but go on.
i never said religious people shouldn’t be represented. I am saying it is different compared to LGBTQ+ representation and BHVR has stated they do not want to include any kind of modern religion which is fair enough as it is their game and they are not excluding any religion over another.
I tried DMing this morning to get this discussion closed because it's obviously getting out of hand but I don't think they saw it yet, sorry for the multiple tags I have no idea who's active right now but this should definitely get closed.
Edit: I've been made aware tagging mods is against forum rules, sorry about that, it's the weekend and I don't even think any of you are active. I'm trying to delete the tags but my phone won't let me for some odd reason, I'll try to do it on my computer later (sorry in advance if I forget or decide to log off for the weekend) sorry again (and double sorry to Rizzo i don't even know why i tagged you twice)
Julie and Frank are literally dating. Heterosexuality has been in the game forever, go complain about christians and conservatives not being represented enough elsewhere and stop spamming my notifications, thank you.
Yes really. There is a Ms. Pac-Man after all. Mario and Peach. The Sims come to mind where I am pretty sure homosexuality was kinda restricted. Many story games almost always having a straight couple.
i never denied that religious people don’t have to suffer. And I never claimed I personally have to suffer. That has nothing to do with anything though
Sorry for kinda contributing to derailing the thread. Hope you understand I am not trying to do so with bad intentions.
also, don’t directly Tag devs (Peanits, Mandy) as that’s against forum rules and they are not directly moderating the forums to begin with.
best way would be to flag your thread as if you report it and mention in the message what you want - that way you can contact active mods
"Video games were better when I could use them to forget gay people existed"
I don't blame you it's okay, I have a hard time not replying to every
bigotperson showing up every couple hours to argue about representation as if my og post wasn't just about a charm.Also thanks for the tip, I always forget the little flags are here. I also just realized it's the weekend so it shouldn't be surprising mods aren't active. Ig I'll just bite my tongue until Monday haha
Straight relationships have existed in video games for decades, you just didn't really notice it because it was 'normal'. Why are straight relationships fine but if it's an LGBT character or relationship suddenly it's a problem and 'political'
In which multiplayer games ?
Counter-Strike ?
Hunt Showdown ?
L4D ?
Evolve ?
Quake ?
Halo ?
I will wait a long time before you answer this i guess 😂
@Annso_x no worries, closed as requested. As mentioned earlier, just flag the thread and request your thread to be closed, and any of us that are about will see the report and handle it asap for ya (and a reminder to everyone to be mindful about pinging the dev role such as Peanits and Mandy per the rule regarding it <3)
I've said it before, and I'll happily say it again because it bears repeating, always: A Person's Identity is just that, their identity. It is NOT a political matter and it is NOT a sexual matter. The addition of the Flags into the game are optional and for those that wish use them (I personally use the progress/pride birb charm all year in solidarity... and Pride Birb is adorable and I love seeing it on my hooks or survivor).
If you don't feel you need representation, that's ok. But representation, *fair, honest, well-written, caring and respectful* representation matters in media; from printed press to video games. And its ok to feel it doesn't pertain to you because it might not, but it's never ok to meet respectful representation of communities or people with vitriol and hate. Ever.
At the end of the day, please remember: We are all human beings, and Empathy isn't just a perk <3