EA Defends Itself Against Thousands of Anti-Gay Letters 1069
donniebaseball23 writes "Video game publisher Electronic Arts has not only had to defend itself against 'worst company in America' labels, but GamesIndustry International has revealed that EA's been receiving thousands of letters protesting the inclusion of same-sex relationship content in games like Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The campaign against EA appears to be led by Florida Family Association and the Family Research Council. The letters threaten to boycott purchase of EA games if the company won't remove the LGBT content, and many allege that EA was pressured by LGBT activists to include the content, which they say is forcing LGBT themes on children playing the games. 'This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment,' said Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications."
There is no same sex relationships in SWTOR (Score:4, Informative)
It does not currently have them. There are some suggestive conversations between different characters but is as close as it gets. Top it off with how bad the in game romance story lines are and I serious doubt any self respecting gay person would want to see the Bioware developers take a stab at it.
I mean, the scripts used make the prequel love story between Anakin and Padme look downright Academy Award material.
Then toss in the fact it all is a computerized version of "Choose your own Adventure" and its painfully obvious you could choose to totally ignore that direction in any conversation.
Re:Anti-Gay? (Score:5, Informative)
I believe homosexual acts are a sin. I believe homosexuality should not be promoted. I oppose gay marriage.
Does this make me anti-gay? No way. Hate the sin and love the sinner. We are all children of God.
By denying gay people respect and what they want - yes you are anti-gay
BTW being gay is natural. If not then why did God create all those gay animals? See Biological Exuberance:Homosexuality and Natural Diversity [amazon.com] which lists the gay and bisexual nature of over 300 species as seen in the wild.
Re:Anti-Gay? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Conflicting (Score:5, Informative)
From my perspective, the FRC is a scourge upon the United States. They exist solely to advocate for censorship of everything they disagree with, because if they don't like it, nobody else should be allowed to see it either. The most ridiculous part is that most of the people who send the letters in don't ever watch anything they're complaining about. They don't want to risk exposure to "that degenerate material" so the FRC employs people to scan shows and find things that they can be offended at, and then provide their membership with a form letter they can use to bombard the latest victim with complaints from people who never watched what they've been told to be offended about.
The evil the organisation does isn't limited to what they actually complain about, companies avoid airing things they know the FRC will be upset about, particularly when Republicans have control of the FCC, because it can be very costly to run afoul of their arbitrary prejudices.
EA mostly makes games that suck. I don't think there's much competition in the evil category here.
Re:Conflicting (Score:5, Informative)
The FFA isn't exactly a real organization. They appear to be one single man with a website, who sent letters to Viacom threatening to boycott the advertisers over an episode of Degrassi which delt with LGBT issues in school, and sent letters to TLC threating to boycott the advertisers unless they cancelled the reality show "All-American Muslim" for, and I'm not making this up, only showing non-terrorist Muslims living in America. The controversy over the latter actually got them more attention than they deserve, and many people on the Far Right signed up for their mailing list.
No, only 1 in 40. (Score:5, Informative)
Isn't the figure that 1 in 10 people is LGBorT?
No, only about 1 in 40 in the US. See "Sex in America, a Definitive Survey" [amazon.com] 2.8% of men, 1.4% of women. 1 in 10 in the largest 5 cities, much lower in more sparsely populated areas. Data based on detailed interviews with 3400 people randomly selected, not self-selected.
Re:Anti-Gay? (Score:5, Informative)
Heterosexuals (and maybe 50% of the time bisexuals) can marry a person they romantically love, if that person is able to give consent and does so.
In most of the United States, homosexuals are NOT able to marry a person they romantically love, even if that person is able to give consent as does so.
That anyone can claim that this is not depriving homosexuals of equal rights is astounding.
Re:The Homosexual Agenda (Score:3, Informative)
That's called "knowing people" and has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
Re:Well I say (Score:5, Informative)
This.
That always confounded me - why on earth would an earnest religious person turn away someone from their church, just because they were a sinner? Aren't non-christians the people you -want- to come to church? Afterall, Christ did lunch with sinners, and preached love and compassion. It's become clear to me that many christians (but not all) are not interested in saving souls, but only about their social club that lets them feel superior to people who are not Them - the other, the different, the outsider. It used to be the jews and gypsies until it became unpopular to ostracise them - now it's the gays and muslims.
That is simply not true. Most churches are open to anyone, and saving souls is task Numero Uno. That doesn't mean that they have to accept conduct, though, which is clearly condemned in the Bible. The idea is to be saved. Part of being saved is "changing your ways", as the Bible teaches. What some people are demanding, however, is that the churches should change for them, accepting things that the Bible teaches against. They want to have their cake and eat it too. Christ taught that salvation was a free gift to anyone that wanted it, but you had to accept it on his terms, not yours.
If someone can't accept that, then so be it. Go about your life elsewhere. But don't demand that churches abandon their teachings and laws to make you feel comfortable. That's not the way it works.
Re:Anti-Gay? (Score:4, Informative)
"You cant lie with a man as you would with a woman, the holes dont line up."
I've never tried personally, but I'm told the problem is actually a missing hole.
"and for not stoning to death a disobedient daughter."
Now now, Leviticus, at least that part, is one of the few bits of the bible that aren't sexist. You were supposed to stone your disobedient son to death too.
Re:Well I say (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So, why don't they... (Score:3, Informative)
In ME3, I was being a good friend to my old war buddy, and they he asked if I wanted to have sex with him. I was unprepared, shocked, and in fact, remember when he told me in the first game he liked girls.
Bioware really screwed that whole thing up just to add gay sex. It was pandering and didn't even fit the character in question. The same thing happened in DA2. Just being nice to ander leads to gay sex. You have to literally berate and scream at everyone of the same gender if you want to be safe. I have no problem with gay characters, but those two instances both felt very forced.