Tag Archives: Same Sex

The Sims Just Binned Gender-Specific Character Restrictions

Last week, Maxis – the studio behind long-running life simulator series The Sims – announced a small change to their current title, The Sims 4.

The free update, automatically rolled out to all users, would apparently make changes so

…female Sims can wear suits like Ellen [DeGeneres], and male Sims can wear heels like Prince”.

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In reality it did much, much more than that.

The game, has removed binary gender categories for clothes, hairstyles, accessories and physical characteristics – such as voice pitch – in its customisation options for characters.

A blogpost from Maxis announced the changes and focused on the game’s history of LGBT support and the freedom it wanted to offer players.

The Sims is made by a diverse team for a diverse audience, and it’s really important to us that players are able to be creative and express themselves through our games”, the post reads. “We want to make sure players can create characters they can identify with or relate to through powerful tools that give them influence over a Sims gender, age, ethnicity, body type and more.”

The Sims has allowed same-sex characters to kiss and fall in love since the game’s original incarnation in 2000.

This progressive gameplay stance, rare for its time, was originally unintended. When demoing the game at the E3 games show, two female characters began to kiss in a live simulation.

In a New Yorker piece, entitled ‘The Kiss That Changed Video Games Forever’, Patrick J Barrett, one of the game developers, recalled:

No other game had facilitated same-sex relationships before – at least, to this extent – and some people figured that maybe we weren’t the ideal ones to be first.”

But the developers decided not to alter the game code and to keep same-sex relationships in place.

The option for same-sex marriage was introduced in The Sims 3, released in 2009, while the first offline same-sex marriages did not happen until March 2014 in the UK and June the following year in the US. The option for gay couples to adopt was also introduced in the game’s third iteration.

Backlash at Brazilian Company O Boticário for Releasing Advert Featuring Same-Sex Couples

Boticário, after they made an advert featuring same-sex couples.

The commercial has made a big impact in Brazil over the last week, causing both negative and positive commentary on social media channels.

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Some people tried to organise a boycott of O Boticário, as well as other companies advocating for marriage equality.

Outraged viewers even opened up a campaign against O Boticário on ReclaimeAqui.

I do not want my children to watch this propaganda. I have the right to preserve the family institution in my home.”

O Boticário actually responded on ReclaimeAqui, saying it “believes in the beauty of relations” and that the point of the campaign is to ”approach with respect and sensitivity, the various forms of love.”

Ellen DeGeneres Joins Elton John’s boycott of Dolce & Gabbana

Ellen DeGeneres has joined Elton John’s boycott of Dolce & Gabbana and says their remarks about same-sex parenting and “synthetic children” were “ignorant.”

Earlier this month, fashion icons Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana (aka Dolce & Gabbana) – who are gay themselves – made comments on their opposition to same-sex couples having children.

We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one…. No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

They made their remarks to an Italian magazine, expressing their disapproval of “synthetic children” conceived via artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation, the only viable method of getting pregnant for both same-sex and heterosexual pairs.

Their comments enraged out singer-songwriter Elton John – who has sons Zachary and Elijah with his husband David Furnish – with Elton calling for a boycott of their luxury fashion label.

Since then several other celebrities have followed suit. Dolce and Gabbana later clarified their remarks, saying they did not mean to judge other people’s choices.

Talking with her wife Portia de Rossi to E! News at the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, California on Saturday, DeGeneres said.

It’s not even worth commenting on because they’re, you know, ignorant,” 

The talk show host added she will never wear Dolce & Gabbana clothes “ever, ever again.”

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De Rossi also added

The only thing you can say is that, you know, we’re all entitled to free speech. However, I just don’t understand who they are. I don’t understand why they would want to say that.”

Zoe Saldana, who attended the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards with husband Marco Perego, with whom she shares twin sons, disagrees with the couple’s stance. She told E! News it would be “the stupidest thing” to boycott Dolce & Gabbana, adding that she is “certainly not going to be refuting when they are adopting synthetic children, however they wanted to say it.”

DeGeneres and de Rossi, who celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in December, have no children and had last year debunked tabloid reports that claimed the two were trying to start a family.

Pasta Makers Celebrates Same-sex Domesticity

A new commercial from Italian frozen foods company Findus, celebrates same-sex domesticity in a remarkably simple, relatable TV advert.

The landmark commercial features a young gay couple serving one of the pair’s mother a dinner. The truly groundbreaking moment comes when the couple comes out to one man’s mother, thinking she believes they are simply roommates. The advert does not show faces, but instead features three pairs of hands — those of the mother, her son Luca’s hands, and those of Luca’s boyfriend, Gianni.

“So Luca, what’s the surprise?”

“There are so many,” Luca replies with a nervous laugh

“Pasta in the microwave? Now that is definitely a surprise.”

“Luca told me it’s your favourite dish,” Gianni chimes in. Then, after a couple of lines of praise for the product, son Luca says, “Mom, I have another surprise…”

That’s when he comes out and let’s his mom know that Gianni is not just his roommate, but also his boyfriend. But Mom replies in a calm, knowing, and clearly accepting tone,:”I already knew.”, and she gently pats her son on the hand.

LGBTQ groups has spoken out positively about the advert, as it offers a strong counter-initiative to the regressive statements from Barilla, but because Italy has been known as slower than other leading EU nations in terms of evolving toward greater equality for LGBT people.

“It’s a positive step forward when different types of families are portrayed in ads, as they resonate with parts of society that are usually marginalized.”

Juris Lavrikovs, ILGA-Europe

 

Same Sex Partnerships Evolving

As the public eye seems to change its view on same-sex couples and marriage, political leaders have had to pay more attention to the wants and needs of more acceptance towards their lifestyles, involving legal protections to the individuals to ensure no one is injured by someone who disagrees with their relationships.

Countries besides America have taken different routes to reach out to gays, and people in same-sex relationships to provide them with equal rights as people who are straight and married. If equal rights are not provided, then there are some arrangements that have been made to give the gay couples (some) of the same rights. Several countries have made sure that all couples whether gay or straight are given the privilege, or right, to be able to get married. Even so, there are daily protests and rants from people who strongly disagree with same-sex marriage, and not all political leaders will stand up for these rights.

However in the United Kingdom there are several discussions about if marriage is a real option for gay couples. Ever since the year 2004 the United Kingdom has allowed gay couples to join into civil partnerships, which allots most of the same rights to gays as the straight people retrieve, is more of a security blanket, which allows for protection if something were to go wrong in a social setting.  Civil partnerships allows both parties to have parental rights, exempt from inheritance tax, etc. While this isn’t marriage, it is a pretty good comparison to the real thing.

While it is a good start, civil partnerships aren’t enough for some people who would love to express their love in church, or in a public setting, exchanging vows and have a certified document to prove their love for each other. It is still inching closer and closer to earning equal rights for love.

However in Canada this is not the case at all. Canada passed a Civil Marriage Act in 2005, so gays could get married in whichever Canadian state they chose. Even if this act wasn’t passed, many states in Canada had already allowed for gay marriages. The United States has yet to make it legal all across the nation, a couple of states have allowed for same-sex marriage.

Australia is not as ahead in the same-sex marriage as each attempt for gays to get married has failed. Most couples cannot even prove they are in a relationship without meeting specific criteria, which can be a lengthy and irritating process.

While gay marriage and relationships are moving at a steady rate to become equal with straight relationships/marriages, government has realized they cannot ignore these requests forever and must take further action to allow everyone to feel safe and free.

 

Same-sex desire and gender identity

The evidence for same-sex desire and fluid ideas of gender has often been overlooked in the past, but museums and their collections can allow us to look back and see diversity throughout history.

Much of the historical evidence is centred around men and their concerns and often what survives is partial, fragmentary or ambiguous. Such things have often been hidden in history, and obscured by censorship, but now we realise the past is much ‘queerer’ than we have often thought.

This theme is based on an original web trail published on the Untold London website. Only some of these objects are on display. Some images contain explicit scenes, though these are shown small (click to see larger versions).

Visit – http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/same-sex_desire_and_gender.aspx