222: Too Gay for the U.S.A.

Andrew Webster

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Too Gay for the U.S.A.

Traditionally, Japanese developers haven't shied away from depicting gay and transgender characters in their games. But when these titles make their way overseas, it's a different story. Andrew Webster looks at how publishers have censored gay characters for North American audiences.

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Distorted Stu

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Nearly all characters in a JRPG are gay. Look at Brother in FFX/x2. He is screaming camp whenever he is on screen!
 

The Kangaroo

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Feb 24, 2009
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BIRDO!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

OT: They changed his entire character to fit their homophobia?
 

SpiritMacardi

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This was quite an enlightening article, and really helped shed some light on the issue of sexuality in games.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention Trevor from Phantasmagoria 2 though. The game itself was undeniable crap, but Trevor was a quite likable character and just happened to be gay.
 

LTK_70

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...he's forced at one point in the game to dress in drag in order to infiltrate a brothel, seduce a pimp and rescue his friend.
Did anyone get a flashback to Fable while reading that? :p
 

matnatz

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SpiritMacardi said:
This was quite an enlightening article, and really helped shed some light on the issue of sexuality in games.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention Trevor from Phantasmagoria 2 though. The game itself was undeniable crap, but Trevor was a quite likable character and just happened to be gay.
The main character was bisexual.
 

Korth13

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Valkyria Chronicles has characters that gain boosts in the field when they are near a gender they fancy. About half are straight and the other half are gay or bi-sexual.

My copy in the UK has this feature but did America sensor this aspect of the game?
 

The Great JT

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This is why I hate androgyenous characters: I want to know are they men, women or gay men/women. Just own up and say "this character is gay," I won't judge for it.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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Yeah it was a pretty interesting article. I mean it's not like it was a huge expose ... wow ... lack of homosexual/transgendered characters in video games ... I never noticed :p

But that being said I think it would be a somewhat silly, and/or detract from the atmosphere, in many games to have ANY sort of open advertisement of sexual orientation in them ... that being said ... the weird and wonderful environment of Super Smash Bros. ... I found it strange they actually edited Birdo.

Any Call of Duty game for instance.

I mean ... most games are about trial and tribulations ... something bad happens ... player fixes said problem. So is it really appropriate to have sexual orientation to be thrust on the monitor just simply for the game developer to go "look, we're gay friendly!"?

Fable did it well though ... your sexual orientation took a back seat to the story.
 

bobknowsall

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Pararaptor said:
Does anyone remember how Fallout 3 was commended for its inclusion of homosexual NPCs in the wasteland, yet of the three gay men, one was a prissy fashion-queen & the other a moustached, hard-voiced rough character with a weaker, dominated lover, & that the two lesbians had hideous rotting skin?
There were openly gay chracters in Fallout 3? I struggled to notice the openly straight ones! *laughs*

I find it rather delightful that people apparently find depictions of dismemberment less repugnant than homosexuality. Because guys kissing is so much more disgusting and harmful than the brutal murder and mutilation of a fellow human being, right? *facepalm*
 

yosophat

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In a world where characters can pretty much do anything like eat mushrooms to grow larger, get multiple lives and use revival spells you would think there would be spells to fix gender orientation issues. But since The States are mostly made up of more people leaning toward the conservative and do not care to understand why gay people exist. I don't either and I'm quite liberal.
 

ProfessorLayton

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Do you want to know why homosexuals aren't in many games in the United States? It's because most kids in the US still use "gay" as an insult. We live in a homophobic community. I really don't care one way or another if the character is gay, what bothers me is the fact that it's being censored in America because some people just can't grow up. This was a great article. I had no idea about all these games being censored.
 

hansari

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Why not just have a developer throw down the gauntlet? Have an openly LGBT hero for the next final fantasy rather than snidely laugh that "lightening" looks like cloud in a wig. Stick one of them in the next Call of Duty game and have him save your life.

We can't just wait around for society to evolve...a push was made for women to get the vote, for schools to be desegregated...why not just make the push for games to be more accepting of different characters?

A loss of revenue is one thing, but with all the indie titles coming out, I find it hard to believe one developer wouldn't be willing to get creative.

~~~
Also...
Andrew Webster said:
A poll conducted by family gaming site What They Play [http://www.whattheyplay.com/press/parent_poll_results_aug_08/] in April 2008 offers further evidence of this aversion to homosexuality in media: When shown a series of provocative pictures, respondents were more offended by the image of two men kissing then that of a severed head.
Wouldn't a poll on gamers rather then their parents be more useful?

I mean...how many parents actually go through the process of screening the games their children are interested in before buying them?
 

bushwhacker2k

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I recall hearing about Birdo being a guy. Yeah, being homophobic seems to be a popular fad that just won't die in the USA... I wonder why?
 

grey_painter

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I was a bit younger and naive when I played through that section of Final Fantasy 7 with the cross dressing so I completely missed the gay undertones. Probably didn't help that I'm British and had been enjoyed the long comic tradition of men dressing as really unconvincing women. I read the scene as one long Monty Python style sketch about the ridiculousness of the Mob boss not noticing the obvious man in a bad wig.
 

Mstrswrd

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I thought the Tingle game was coming out in the United States? It just got a new, nicely localized name and everything.

Anyway, that was an interesting look at the nature of sexuality (or, rather, homosexuality) in gaming.

I would also like to state that, I think it was the Gamecube Mario Tennis, that Birdo was officially once again recognized as a boy who wants to be a girl by all people.

Actually, an interesting bit of info is that Vivian, the ghost ally from "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" is actually male in the japanese version, just ultra effeminate (I'm pretty sure, at least), while in every other version, Vivian is a girl.
 

Great Sage

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A pretty good article but you do sort of miss the point - a lot of people think that Transgendered people are gay, they confuse sexuality with gender when this is simply not the case. I don't have a problem with seeing gay or transgendered characters in games and American homophobia comes as no surprise to this Brit, please though do not compound the errors of the unenlightened by confusing Gender Identity Dysphoria with one's sexuality.
 

Paendorrah

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For someone who has no insight in how the US legislate on game content and such, this a great article. Well, it's also a great article for many other reasons. Being Danish, I am of course flabbergasted that this censorship is even takes place. Flabbergasted and disappointed. I know for a fact that the States produce some very competent media scientists, as lastly seen in the Thomson-trial-thing, witnessing against him. But why aren't the government listening to the experts? Do the people responsible find themselves more competent in all maters moral and obscure than those who have studied the subject matter?