L(P)GBTQ Zone - It turns out, we were The Gays all along...

This is a thread for lesbians, gay people, bi people, trans people and general queers and the like to congregate and discuss issues that pertain to us, offer and seek advice/support, and generally hang out and be gaymers talking about video games and lgbtness. All are welcome to post regardless of identity so long as you’re respectful (which you should do anyway since, well, forum rules.)

Just making this because there was a similar thread on a, uh, certain website a lot of us used to go on, which had been incredibly useful to me and a lot of others and had generally been a fun time.

Thread rules:

  1. Give good faith that everyone in the thread has a good reason to be in the thread.
    a. Avoid profiling people for not fitting your image of gay/trans/queerness or for being lgbt in a different way from you.
    b. Sometimes people don’t know who they are and that’s ok. Allow them to describe themselves without pressure to self-identify as one thing or another. A cool thing about the internet is you can explore who you are online without the pressure of it being connected to your offline identity.
    c. Refrain from discourse or discussions surrounding who does or does not belong in lgbtq spaces, or what letters should go in the acronym, or if we should use that acronym or not.
  2. Keep in mind that we are posting in a public thread.
    a. Do not post personal information you do not want ending up on some “lolcow” forum. LGBT populations are ripe targets and we want you to be safe. Congregating in public has always had risks for use throughout history but if we just think before speaking I think the reward of community outweighs the risk.
    b. If you need to discuss something sensitive I highly recommend taking it to PMs with who you want to speak to, or PMing each other your discord/matrix/telegram/xmpp and discussing it there.
  3. It’s okay to be “off-topic” or light hearted. It’s okay to post something serious and “harsh the vibes.” The tone of the thread can be dynamic like that.
  4. Like the mental health thread, remember that nobody here can be your therapist or social worker. We can offer advice from personal experiences and it’s okay to check in on an ongoing situation if you need to. But please seek professional help when it gets to that point and keep in mind the limits of what internet strangers can do for you.

General resources:

Trans lifeline: 877-565-8860 offers crisis counseling 24/7 and saves many lives.
Trevor Project: 866-488-7386. Another LGBT crisis counseling 24/7 hotline, specifically for youth
Fenway Health Adult Hotline: (888) 340-4528 A hotline active from 6pm-11pm for LGBT individuals age 25+ to get health advice relating to safe sex and HIV, referrals to lgbt-friendly clinics and therapists, and emotional support around coming out and other issues.
Fenway Health Youth Hotline: (800) 399-PEER Same as above but with individuals under the age of 25, hours are 5:30pm to 10pm
Pronoun Practicing Game: http://minus18.org.au/pronouns-app/
Not Your Mom’s Trans 101: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/asher-not-your-mom-s-trans-101
CenterLink: http://www.lgbtcenters.org/Centers/find-a-center.aspx A tool for finding local LGBT community centers, though only their member affiliates are listed so it’s worth googling around too.
GLMA Directory: Click here for it, the link is super long This is a directory of LGBT-friendly medical practitioners.
WPATH Directory: Another long link Directory of trans-competent medical practitioners.

Lemme know if there’s anything you want added to the OP

7 Likes

So then, kicking off the thread. Hello. I’m Shel and I’m a non-binary bi trans fem-kinda person.

Anyone played some games with good LGBT representation lately? I know Stawdew Valley is good for it. Any others?

Hello people. I’m not at liberty to disclose my name, but most people call me Kelerak. Or Keli. Whatever works. I am MTF at the moment (purely by pronouns, mind), but I’m thinking about just switching to gender-neutral pronouns, just because I don’t want to limit myself to one or the other. I’m also pansexual, so that’s pretty cool, if you ask me.

As far as LGBTQ representation in games that I’ve played, yeah, Stardew Valley is pretty good about it. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is also decent about it, what with implementing crossdressing and all.

I can’t stress how well Saints Row (at least from 3 on, barring Gat Out Of Hell) deals with it via character creation. I don’t think anyone refers to your character by the sex you chose, just as Boss. There isn’t any gender-locked clothing either, every voice is available for every sex, and you can modify your base character, including the sex, at any time. It’s fantastic.

I always found cross-dressing in games to be super interesting because, like, in animal crossing i could just choose to make my character a girl. But if I made them a boy earlier and then didn’t want to re-make but wanted to wear femmy clothing, it’s sort of like an in-game transition? Which is super fascinating as a thing to exist.

Likewise, with Saint’s Row it’s not like they actually made characters gender non-conforming, but rather, by simply choosing to not initially create the same barriers normally carried over from societal norms, it ends up being super queer, even though it as a queer by absence of limitations rather than the active inclusion of lgbt characters.

Hi, could you add www.asexuality.org to the resources list? I’m ace and I found that site helps answer lots a questions for everyone, not just asexual. And I don’t fault anyone for not knowing about sexuality, it’s kinda like part of the trifecta of often ignored sexualitys: bisexuality, pansexuality, and asexuality.
Anyway I’d type more but I’m on mobile so this is all I can get out. Thanks for making this topic tho.

4 Likes

Non-binary asexual here, just checking in.

2 Likes

I’m gay and I like to kiss chubby boys whats up

5 Likes

I don’t post a whole hell of a lot unless I have jokez to make or thoughts to add oh my gosh i’m so bad at shitposting but I’m here, I’m queer, and I still live in a shitty place so I’m avoiding personally identifiable information! that doesn’t have quite the same ring to as a chant, huh?

1 Like

Agreed. I’m pan, so I like to kiss anybody, tho chubby boys are especially cute.

I’m also non-binary and prefer ‘they’.

On the topic of LGBT rep in games, I feel like BotW needs to be mentioned considering it’s a hot button topic at the moment. The questline around the Gerudo outfit is pretty badly handled, but this article makes an interesting case for some of the positive aspects of how it’s handled: http://letsplayvideogames.com/2017/03/the-complexities-of-trans-gerudo-town/

2 Likes

Similar situation with the cross-dressing in Story of Seasons (and I think Harvest Moon: A New Beginning?). It’s not played as a joke and nobody really comments on it, it’s just an option available to you. It’s almost certainly because it’s easier to not program gender checks for clothing, but it’s still nice to get cross-dressing representation that isn’t played as a joke (see: Breath of the Wild).

Now if we could actually get some more gay/lesbian representation in those games. I think the only LGBT-esque thing in Harvest Moon so far is Marian from SoS.

Speaking of which while reminding myself of Marian’s name I found this article about constructing a queer narrative in Story of Seasons that I thought was nice.

Oh yeah, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Dijon and I’m a boring cis gayman. Hi.

2 Likes

My favorite thing about this site is seeing all the rainbows on display on peoples’ avatars. Definitely the sort of community I like to see where we’re free to be open and no one has a problem with it.

I’m asexual and getting into gender non-binarism (I like the nonsense term “tomgirl” as it doesn’t really commit to anything or co-opt terms I don’t feel worthy of). You don’t see much of either trait represented in video games or media in general, but I don’t really expect it, asexuality especially was a very rare thing to hear about until quite recently. I think the only non-indie game I’ve played to address any queer lifestyles was Persona 4, and I’m hoping it comes up again in Persona 5 with fewer or, ideally, no offensive missteps.

4 Likes

In my head, persona 4 ends where Naoto is a gay trans man and Kanji is gay and they’re just in a happy gay relationship. I just uh, reject whatever else happens in the narrative and replace it with this happier version.

1 Like

Dare I ask what happened in the narrative? My only experience with P4 was the first anime and that was streamlined for 23 episodes, not 60+ hours of gameplay.

Naoto was a lady presenting as man because of non-traditionally feminine career choice, Kanji was into ladies the whole time, it was all really a narrative about how he should accept himself for liking traditionally feminine hobbies, not for being gay or possibly liking dudes.

Still positive, for the time, just not positive in the ways that a lot of people would have liked.

Cis bi-dude (technically pan since I’m attracted to all genders?) here.

my headcanon for Naoto is they decide they’re non-binary bc gender just causes problems. and kanji’s just like ‘k cool you do you’ and they date. and maybe rise’s there i dunno ¯_(ツ)_/¯

anyway, I’m Shelby to real-life people and Lane to the internet. I’m female most days but sometimes I just don’t really care. gay and very asexual. very.

Hi. I’m Jenner and I’m Bi or Pan or something. I’m also cis female.

I’m in a heterosexual relationship though so I’m invisible. Regarding games with representation, even though it’s not amazing I really like 2064: Read Only Memories for being super diverse.

2 Likes

I’m Roy. I’m a boy most of the time (he/him/his pretty much always fine), and I don’t think I really factor gender into my attraction to others anymore, whatever label that falls under. I might have more stuff to share depending on how things work out for me over the next six to twelve months.

We Know The Devil is really good.

1 Like

im Sev and im a bi trans girl! nothing like picking up dark souls and finding out stuff about your gender halfway thru the series, it was weird otherwise very boring

3 Likes

Hi, I’m Matt and I’m bi. I came out to my friends and the entirety of the internet a year-and-a-half ago, but I’m still in the closet wrt my parents.