I remember the first "gay" marriage on the Povar server in EQ1. This would have been in 2001 or 2. They were a couple, straight, in my guild and they married their female toons. I remember they used to RP it, a lot, and it was a hoot watching the reactions of young male gamers who saw it. We all had a lot of fun with it, yelling out "Sheesh! get a room!" and such. Personally, I would have not been put out at all if they had been 2 guys or 2 girls.

A large part of Fantasy RPG's, to me, is just that... Fantasy. Most of my toons are male but I do have several female toons and I am often amused by the reaction of male gamers to a female toon. It teaches me a lot about the ways that I react around RL women and I think it has made me a better man. At the very least it has made me more aware of it when I behave like that. :)

Back to the topic, I remember that the GM's were very calm about it, and had nothing negative to say. One showed up at the appointed time and performed the ceremony. I think he was as amused as we all were that anyone would say anything about it.

On the other hand, as long as there have been games online there have been uncouth children blathering on and on in strongly homophobic language. I have learned that this is actually normal. It is the way young male humans who have little to no real-life experience think they have to act so others do not think they are "different". It is all just noise and posturing to make themselves more comfortable. Grown men rarely have need of such juvenile blather.

As a late-40's man who is very comfortable with his sexuality, I can just smile and /ignore them. Now if only real life had a /ignore option. Hopefully RL society will catch up some day and recognize that Gay is not a "lifestyle" or a "choice". It is and always has been primarily genetic with an element of environmental factors. Let's all grow up, stop letting others do our thinking for us, and admit they have as much right to their happiness as we do.

Violence against a minority group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_LGBT_people

Gays are being beaten, shot at, sent to the hospital, killed. In the Middle East, they are killing gays among other groups out of hatred. Is this what we want America to become? Do we want America to revert back to the 1960's when groups were killed and segregated against for simply no good reason? Do we want to follow the ways of the Middle East and Al Queda? Let's push forward, it's time to end bigotry, discrimination, hate, and ignorance. This is modern America, not the Dark Ages.

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/hate.htm

This was taken from another poster that shows why we need to legalize gay marriage. If you don't feel for this person after reading it, you simply aren't human.

"I am not sure what our President thinks of this dicission but coming from a poor family and knowing what discrimination is all about I would assume he would not care if "Gays" have equal rights. The whole reason why they are asking for rights to be considered married is from the same reason why I would be for it. My own life partner commited suicide in our home with a gun to his heart. After a 28 year union I was deprived to even go his funeral. We had two plots next to each other. But because we did not have a marriage cirtificate "(Legal Document)" of our union his mother had him cremated and his ashes taken back to Missouri where we came from. That is only one example how painful it is. His suicide tramatized me so much and her disregard for my feelings only added to my heartach. That happened on March 21 of 2007 and I still cannot type this without crying for the trauma I have to endure each day. Oh did I mention I am in an electric wheelchair for life? Yes I am and it is very diffacult to find another mate when you are 58 and in a wheelchair. "

For those of you claiming homosexuality is a "lifestyle", that is a false and ignorant statement. Homosexuality is not a choice. Just like you don't choose the color of your skin, you cannot choose whom you are sexually attracted to. If you can, sorry, but you are not heterosexual, you are bi-sexual. Virtually all major psychological and medical experts agree that sexual orientation is NOT a choice. Most gay people will tell you its not a choice. Common sense will tell you its not a choice. While science is relatively new to studying homosexuality, studies tend to indicate that its biological.

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/differential-brain-activation.pdf
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/dn14146-gay-brains-structured-like-those-of-the-opposite-sex.html
Gay, Straight Men's Brain Responses Differ
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155990,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/health/060224_gay_genes.html
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w27453600k586276/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/06/16/172/

There is overwhelming scientific evidence that homosexuality is not a choice. Sexual orientation is generally a biological trait that is determined pre-natally, although there is no one certain thing that explains all of the cases. "Nurture" may have some effect, but for the most part it is biological.


And it should also be noted that:
"It is worth noting that many medical and scientific organizations do believe it is impossible to change a person's sexual orientation and this is displayed in a statement by American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, Interfaith Alliance Foundation, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association."

To those of you using the Bible as a weapon against homosexuality, you are wrong. Homosexuality is not a sin. The Bible is constantly being taken out of context to support anti-gay views. Scholars who have studied the Bible in context of the times and in relation to other passages have shown those passages (Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans, etc) have nothing to do with homosexuality. These passages often cherry-picked while ignoring the rest of the Bible. The sins theses passages are referring to are idolatry, Greek temple sex worship, prostitution, pederasty with teen boys, and rape, not homosexuality or two loving consenting adults.


http://www.soulfoodministry.org/docs/English/NotASin.htm
http://www.jesus21.com/content/sex/bible_homosexuality_print.html
http://www.christchapel.com/reclaiming.html
http://www.stjohnsmcc.org/new/BibleAbuse/BiblicalReferences.php
http://www.gaychristian101.com/

Thats why Jesus never mentions it as well. There is nothing immoral, wrong, or sinful about being gay. Jesus, however, clearly states he HATES hypocrites. If you preach goodness, then promote hate and twist the words of the Bible, you are a hypocrite, and will be judged and sent to hell. Homosexuals will not go to hell, hypocrites will.

This is very similar to the religious bigots of the past, where they took Bible passages to condone slavery, keep women down, and used Bible passages to claim blacks as curses who should be enslaved by the white man. People used God to claim that blacks marrying whites was unnatural, and not of God's will.

Guess its no different then those Sim games that let you be gay. Does not seem like a needed change and I would imagine it will agitate more customers then anything.

Why is it the homosexuals seem to deliberately go out of their way to stir up trouble surrounding their 'preference'. We all know that anyone on the internet who even hints that they might be gay is immediately ridiculed and harassed and then 'you' cry foul that "we're being mistreated"; STOP FLAUNTING, NO ONE LIKES FLAUNTERS.

And that's specifically why I hope Western Devs never adopt the policy that RoM just did; it's nothing but trouble. And in the Land of Lawsuits (aka USA) no smart company would ever dare to try this.

PS:
You're proud to be gay; awesome! I'm proud to be straight, but you don't see me wearing a T-Shirt advertising it

<inb4flaming, because most people are to weak to take a little critism>