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Facebook now lets you specify a custom gender in your profile
Many in the queer community identify themselves through genders that don't fit into binary male and female definitions, but social networks typically don't allow for that kind of nuance. Thankfully, Facebook is more accommodating as of today. You can now specify a custom gender as well as a preferred pronoun. If you're not always comfortable with sharing that gender, you can limit who sees it. Facebook isn't accounting for every aspect of gender -- you still have to describe family relationships in binary terms, for instance -- but this is an important first step.
EA scores 100% in LGBT equality, named 'Best Place to Work' by HRC
Looking from the outside, EA might not be the Internet's favorite company. But on the inside, apparently not everything is doom, gloom and CEOs laughing maniacally while wringing their hands in cartoonishly evil delight. The company recently scored a 100 percent for workplace equality and was named one of the Best Places To Work for LGBT Equality in the US by the Human Rights Campaign. So, what does it mean to score a 100 percent by the HRC? According to the organization's 2014 Corporate Equality Index, a company must: prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression, offer partner health or medical insurance; have parity across other "soft" benefits for partners, offer transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage; have firm-wide organizational competency programs, have an employer-supported employee resource group or firm-wide diversity council, and positively engage the external LGBT community. It was that last criteria in which EA made the most headlines this year - the company participated in multiple Pride Parades, hosted Full Spectrum and was an official sponsor of GaymerX. This marks the second year in a row EA has earned a perfect score from the HRC.
Queer-friendly cyberpunk adventure game Read Only Memories reaches funding goal in final 48 hours
Read Only Memories, a cyberpunk adventure game from the founders of the GaymerX convention, has successfully hacked its way into people's hearts as well as their wallets. The game reached its Kickstarter goal of $62,064 on December 11, and closed funding yesterday with a total of $64,378. The actual final funding tally is closer to $126,000 though, as Ouya will match the initial $62,064 goal with their own money in exchange for a period of exclusivity on the system, thanks to Read Only Memories participating in the Free the Games Fund. Read Only Memories is advertised as featuring "queer-friendly characters," according to the game's Kickstarter page, and also includes non-gender-binary options for players. In one released screenshot, a robot assistant - who also happens to be the mascot for GaymerX - asks which pronoun the player would like to be referred to with, and there's more than just "he" and "she" to choose from. The game is expected to ship for PC, Mac and Ouya in fall of next year, with Android and iOS versions planned to release six months thereafter. In the meantime, it's also up for voting on Steam Greenlight.
Cyberpunk adventure 'Read Only Memories' from GaymerX founders
Read Only Memories plays out in 2064 Neo-San Francisco, when all forms of personal electronics have been replaced by little robot buddies called ROMs. As a young journalist, the main character must uncover the mystery of a vanished friend while surviving the feral streets of this future city. Read Only Memories takes inspiration from 90s adventure games, and one in particular: Snatcher, the cyberpunk adventure created by Hideo Kojima. Read Only Memories comes from Midboss Games, a newly established studio from the founders of GaymerX, a convention focused on queer issues in gaming. GaymerX was funded via Kickstarter in September 2012, and Midboss is looking for the same success with Read Only Memories. The team needs $62,064 by December 13 on Kickstarter, and it's part of Ouya's Free the Games Fund, meaning Ouya will match all pledges up to $62,000 if it all works out. The game is slated for PC, Mac, Ouya, iOS and Android, and Midboss wants to have a playable build ready for GaymerX2 in July. Read Only Memories has queer characters, but it isn't "a gay game," GaymerX founder Matt Conn says: "A lot of queer characters can be presented on an equal level with their straight counterparts. It's really important that we create more games that have queer characters in them, but the point is also not to shoehorn them in."
Drama Mamas: To come out or not to come out
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Be excellent to each other. Hello, I'm in an extra interesting position presently. Let's start with the gameplay perspectives: I play a Protection Warrior currently, and I'm looking to partake in tanking for my guild. In most cases, this is fine, even with the use of Vent and all that. My significant other is a healer in the same guild, and we're working our way in and being friendly. And it's a great guild, one we both enjoy very much. But the kicker is that both my partner and I are Transgender, Male to Female, and hoping to start transitioning this year. We RP a couple of female Pandaren with the same guild, and after discussing it with eachother, we've decided we want to do what we can to simply stealth it. It's far easier to just be what we feel we should be online than it is to try and explain it all over again.
Do you con?
This past weekend I made a 5-hour drive to San Francisco for the inaugural run of GaymerX. If you're not familiar, the gay gaming convention made pretty big news in tech circles when it successfully Kickstarted itself into existence this year. And it's still making news after the fact thanks to the unbelievably rad live rendition of GLaDOS's Still Alive making the rounds on the Interwebs (above). I met up with a lot of awesome people there and helped moderate a panel on podcasting with the dudes from Horde House, WoW Insider regulars Spike and Slagkick of Game Buoy, and some other great folks from Qoopa Klub and Gayme Bar. I ran into nerd heartthrob Orkchop and his wife, played a killer game of Cards Against Humanity, and made a lot of gaming friends from around the country that I'll hang out with again. This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: "Huge success." It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. So, the question of the day is this: Do you guys love going to conventions as much as I do? Have you gone to any memorable ones lately? And are there any you're really looking forward to (*cough, cough* BlizzCon)?
How The Sims got its same-sex relationships [update]
Update: While Graham originally called out lead engineer Jamie Doornbos as the one responsible for same-sex relationships in The Sims, it was actually one of the general engineers, Patrick J. Barrett III, who added it in. The article has been updated accordingly. The Sims was one of the earliest mainstream video games to include actionable same-sex relationships when it launched in 2000. Rather than being a concerted effort on the part of developer EA Maxis, the equal-opportunity Woohoo (a euphemism for sex in the game) was implemented by engineer Patrick J. Barrett III – an openly gay man who had a reputation for getting the programming done. "He just did it," said David "Rez" Graham, The Sims 4 lead AI programmer and a panelist at EA's GaymerX panel on creating more LGBT-inclusive experiences this past weekend. "He just went in there and it was a thing one day" and "nobody really questioned it, which was cool."
GaymerX panel reflects on LGBTQ themes in video games, overcoming public reaction
As video games continue to search for their voice and place in cultural relevancy, they tackle new subjects and issues facing contemporary society. Ten years ago, the world was an entirely different place, especially in terms of LGBTQ acceptance. Joystiq recently learned that in 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the inclusion of a lesbian character had to be hidden from developer BioWare's other employees, including the marketing team. Why? There was fear surrounding the audience's reaction. "I think for a long time, it was just assumed that nobody would accept it," David Gaider, the lead writer for the Canadian developer's Dragon Age series said, speaking at San Francisco's GaymerX convention. In the decade since KotOR's release, the RPG-house hasn't shied away from such inclusions. In its blockbuster space opera Mass Effect 3, players have the option of pursuing same-sex romances; there are numerous openly gay characters, too. This could have caused some to avoid the multi-million selling series' conclusion, but Gaider said that he thinks there is equal evidence of some people buying the games because of their accepting nature. He posited that as a result, other publishers and developers will likely follow suit because they're "copycats." For the panel's full conversation, read Joystiq's report about the "hump of assumptions" associated with LGBTQ representation in games like The Sims and Jade Empire.
Clearing the 'hump of assumptions' in making LGBT inclusive games
A "hump of assumptions" can stand in the way of creating and including lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters in video games today, said David Gaider, lead writer for the Dragon Age series at BioWare. Speaking on an EA-populated panel at GaymerX in San Francisco today, Gaider and colleagues addressed the importance of heeding the demand for diversity and, more plainly, "reflecting humanity" in modern games. Hesitation over tackling LGBT issues, Gaider said, can come from pessimistic assumptions made – both by creators and marketers – about how the audience will react. One of BioWare's earliest gay characters, Juhani in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, was practically snuck into the game. "I think for a long time it was just assumed that nobody would accept it," he said. "That's what the mentality was. It's not like we went and tried to ask permission or anything - we kind of hid it. She never says, 'She was my lover.' She just says, 'We are very close.'" Not explicitly addressing the topic, however, "seemed like a very obvious exclusion" to Gaider. BioWare's next role-playing game, Jade Empire, was less subtle in its depiction of a same-sex relationship, and it faced far less resistance than the team had assumed. There was no long conversation after the team asked, "Why don't we just make the romances available to both genders?" According to Gaider, "that was the whole conversation."
Ask Massively: Taboo topics
In the US, we have a joke about how you never discuss politics or religion with friends if you want to keep those friends, which is a shame since those are usually the most interesting subjects, especially when it's three in the morning and you're out of jello shots. Today's topic might seem as if it's about religion and politics on the surface, but it's really not. A reader named Ediz wrote to us with the following question: While browsing the official Neverwinter forum guild recruitment section, I noticed several guilds openly advertising their religious orientation. I think this is really bad, even if they accept non-religious members. This type of behaviour should be strongly dealt with by community managers. The last thing I want in a game and especially MMO is to see people's religious, sexual, or political orientations openly advertised as it just ruins my immersion. I politely complained about it on the thread, and my post has been casually removed by the moderators. What is wrong with these guys? Short answer? Nothing at all.
EA addresses LGBT issues in gaming in first ever 'Full Spectrum' event
At the Ford Foundation in upper Manhattan this morning, representatives from inside and outside the game industry spoke to the issues that LGBT gamers face and how best to fix them in the first ever "Full Spectrum" event. From online interactions filled with offensive language to games that don't represent LGBT relationships, those issues are myriad and varied. It's an unprecedented event, actually -- despite the wide-ranging demographics of gaming in the modern world, no such event has been held before, nonetheless hosted by one of the game industry's largest publishers (Electronic Arts teamed with the Ford Foundation and the Human Rights Campaign for today's event). As Entertainment Software Association VP of media and events Dan Hewitt reminded attendees during the first panel, the game industry is an (annual) $24 billion business that spans 50 percent of American homes, and the average gamer is 31-years-old. So why are we still seeing such an underrepresentation of diversity in gaming, despite a diversity of gamers?%Gallery-181057%
EA given best workplace title for LGBT employees
If there's one thing reading Massively's comments has taught me, it's that major big-budget game companies are evil and probably kill kittens. But a recent rating by the Human Rights Campaign might work towards changing your mind about EA a bit. The Human Rights Campaign has given the company a 100 percent rating which has earned it the title of "Best Place to Work for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Equality" for 2013. In addition to providing what they call a welcoming work environment for everyone, EA has also made changes to its medical benefits, involved itself in LGBT community events, and publicly denounced the Defense of Marriage Act. EA currently publishes some of the most popular console and PC games out there, including the MMOs Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Warhammer Online, and more.
8th annual LGBT Proudmoore Pride celebration to be held this weekend
Here in the United States, the month of June is traditionally known as a month of celebration of pride by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Around the country, major cities are erupting in parades, dance parties, and excellent interior design. But it's not just the real world that celebrates -- June is a time for celebration in Azeroth, too. Sponsored by The Stonewall Family (Alliance) and Taint (Horde) guilds, the eighth annual Proudmoore Pride celebration will be held this Saturday, June 16 on the Proudmoore (US) server. Lineup for the Proudmoore Pride parade begins at 11:00 a.m. server (2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific). Horde characters will line up at the Mor'Shan Ramparts in Northern Barrens; Alliance will meet at Honor's Stand in Southern Barrens. The parade begins at 11:45, with both factions scheduled to meet up in Booty Bay at 12:30 p.m. for a massive Disco Dance Party. There will be a special Pride edition of the WoW Factor transmog contest at 2:30 p.m. at the Stormwind Cathedral. All Alliance characters are encouraged to attend to show off their fiercest fashion and try to win a share of the 100,000 gold prize pool. If you haven't been to a Proudmoore Pride celebration before, I would recommend it -- it's quite the spectacle. Full details about Proudmoore Pride can be had at the official website, ProudmoorePride.com.
EA not bowing to 'political harassment' over LGBT inclusion in games
EA's executives, board of directors and creative leads have been inundated with "several thousand" letters protesting the inclusion of same-sex relationships in BioWare titles, reports GamesIndustry International. In addition to threatening a boycott of EA titles, most of the letters received allege that EA was pressured into including non-heterosexual relationship options in its games by LGBT groups, with the expressed purpose of exposing children to LGBT ideas."Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment," VP of corporate communications Jeff Brown said in a statement to GamesIndustry.The letter-writing campaign is believed to be the work of the Florida Family Association and the Family Research Council. The Florida Family Association's recent call to arms over Star Wars: The Old Republic claims that LGBT groups are "demanding that the makers of Star Wars video games add LGBT characters for kids to select as their character when playing the games." Meanwhile, the Family Research Council maintains that "the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists."
Activists target SWTOR's future same-gender romances
It looks like the notorious Family Research Council has decided that it's again time to dust off its pitchforks and light some torches, and this time the organization has Star Wars: The Old Republic in its sights. In a post on the Family Research Council's website, president Tony Perkins announced that "in a galaxy not so far far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side." Why are SWTOR players seeing a sudden influx of dark side points? Because, as the group states, "the new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships." Well, not quite -- fans of the game know that same-gender romance arcs have been slated to be a post-launch feature since last fall but are still not part of the live game. The FRC is calling on players to think of the children and claims that parents and forum-goers alike are bothered by this "Star Warped way of thinking," asking them to "show companies who the Force is really with!" Massively addressed the topic in a 2010 opinion column. You can read the organization's full statement at the link below.
Profanity filters, homophobic slurs, and Blizzard's shaky relationship with the LGBT community
Warning: This post may contain language that is offensive to some. Yesterday on the official World of Warcraft forums, a poster brought up the fact that the word "transsexual" gets censored by Blizzard's mature language filter. Almost immediately after, another poster brought up the fact that the word "homosexual" is censored as well. The obvious follow-up question has stirred a hornet's nest of controversy: Why are these considered bad words? Predictably, that forum thread quickly spun out of control. It was ultimately locked by a moderator, but not before Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok chimed in: "Transsexual" censored by filter We've reviewed our filter list and there are a few words there that should not be blocked as profanity; we'll be removing them in a future patch. source So case closed, right? Well ... hold on. Before we simply close the books on the matter, there are some important questions to be answered. Namely this: Why was "transsexual" censored in the first place?
The MMO Report: Purple tie edition
This week on the MMO Report ("where raids kill marriages dead"), Casey Schreiner covers Blizzard's charity-driven auctions for World of Warcraft server blades, The Secret World's plans for factional PvP, Star Wars: The Old Republic's new European release date and NYCC video, and CCP's ongoing mea culpa. He also jokingly suggests that the upcoming F2P browser-based Transformers MMO is "pretty much a standard MMO with no unique features other than the fact that you can transform into your own mount." Fighting words indeed! After a quick dip into the mailbag, Casey ends on a serious note by pointing out his swanky purple duds are his way of showing support for bullied LGBT youth among the gaming populace. The next time you hear a slur in a game, Casey advises, you should demand to know why the hater's "intellect is in a constant state of debuff." All that and more embedded after the break!
Apple withdraws iTunes from 'Christian Values Network'
Techland reports that Apple has pulled iTunes off of the "Christian Values Network." The network operates an online shopping portal, CVN.org, which "plugs you into a special online shopping network that helps your chosen organization just by shopping, without adding any additional cost to you" according to the site. Many big-name companies were indirectly associated with the site in this manner, including Apple. Why has Apple chosen to withdraw its affiliate program from the site? According to Techland, the Southern Poverty Law Center has determined that many of the religious groups associated with the site are classified as "active hate groups." Family Research Council, for instance, is an active lobbyist against rights for LGBT individuals and insists that divorcing couples with children be subject to a one-year waiting period before the divorce can be finalized. Many other religious groups associated with CVN are active campaigners against homosexual rights. Ben Crowther launched a petition to convince Apple to withdraw iTunes from CVN, and given Apple's past support for LGBT issues, it's not surprising Apple followed suit. However, in this case Apple isn't exactly blazing the trail; Microsoft withdrew its support from CVN two weeks earlier, and Wells Fargo, Delta Airlines, and Macy's did as well. More than 35,000 people signed the petition, which began on July 5. I've often been skeptical of the utility of online petitions, but this one definitely got Apple's attention. (Comments on this post will be strictly moderated.)
Apple employees appear in 'It Gets Better' video
Update: Adam Christianson points out that YouTube seems to have removed the video for a policy violation due to "depiction of harmful activities." We're reaching out to YouTube for comment. Update 2: The video has been restored and is once again visible below and on YouTube.com. As a matter of policy, YouTube does not comment on individual videos that are removed from the service, but a spokesperson provided the following statement to TUAW: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention [that] a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it." While it's tempting to dive into the conspiracy theory deep end when something like this happens ("OMG Apple made YouTube pull the video!!!"), in this case it seems like it was a simple -- and rapidly correctable -- mistake. Original post below. --- Several Apple employees have appeared in a video for the It Gets Better project, which is part of The Trevor Project, an organization out to prevent suicides in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youths. The video, posted below, is pretty powerful stuff and doesn't really require much additional commentary on our part. Keep in mind there's language and themes discussed in the video that are possibly NSFW, so maybe wait for your work commute or until you get home to watch it. [via MacStories] Note: Due to the topic of this post, we will be strictly moderating comments. We are always happy to host civil and respectful discussions.
The Classifieds: Coming out of the closet edition
The Classifieds is a weekly roundup of news from around the WoW community. Your host for this week is the ever-so-shadowy Fox Van Allen, filling in for a vacationing Lisa Poisso in exchange for an undisclosed sum of pirate treasure. As always, if you have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share, send it in to TheClassifieds@WoW.com. If there are 50 ways to leave your lover, then there must be at least 100 different ways to leave a guild. There's the middle-of-an-argument /gquit, the log-on-in-the-middle-of-the-night-so-no-one-sees-you /gquit, the passive-aggressive /gquit, and of course, the I-illegally-sold-my-WoW-account-on-Craigslist-to-buy-a-ten-year-old-dirtbike /gquit. I think I have a new favorite, though: The tauren-trapped-in-a-night-elf's-body /gquit. Milkmenot (Boulderfist [US-H]), formerly Slimbones (Uldaman [US-A]), wrote one of the most creative goodbye notes to his guild that I've seen in a long time: I have a confession I need to make, it's something that has been bothering me for quite some time and I need to get it out there. I've been having these feelings. It started out just around town in Dalaran when I would see this Tauren going by. Our eyes would meet, just briefly, and all these feelings would well up inside. I'd try to follow her, intrigued by her curves and horns, but then she always goes into that Horde-only area and I would get booted out. So I'd hang around the entrance there just hoping to sneak a peek. The rest of the goodbye note -- and so much more -- is available just after the break.
