" 

 == Please resist the urge to spin == 

 As a gay gamer who has been playing video games since the 1976 Fairchild, I can say that I have been FAR from impressed with the representation of gay identity in video gaming. I can tolerate ridiculous stereotypical depictions of gay folk, but what is worse is the systematic censorship. Classifying mere gay identity as ""mature/sexual/adult"" is one way of enabling retailers like Wal-Mart to de-gay their shelves and content creators to de-gay their products, citing sales concerns. It is patently discriminatory to act as if being openly gay is ""more sexual"" than being openly hetero, yet people blithely accept this double-standard all the time. 

 While there isn't much news coverage to be found about this, the Christian Right is driving quite a bit of this. Their scare tactics routinely include trying to convince parents that gays are after their children. Having openly gay characters in video games, especially when they're not villains and fools, is a threat to their system of using us as pawns in their quest for power. 

 The Sims proved people wrong who declared ""only hetero males play video games"". Besides, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy to make products designed to appeal to the taste of one demographic and proclaim that others simply have no interest in gaming in the first place. It's quite convenient. How much of this dearth of gay content (and I don't mean token content) is due to the fact that most developers are heterosexual men? 

 So, please resist the urge to spin the history of gays-in-gaming as being much rosier than it is. Even The Sims titles censor us, making us ""convert"" people into homosexuals (a very offensive thing to force a gay person to do, let me tell you) and force characters into romantic interactions. A token non-foolish non-evil gay character here and there does not equate to an industry in which people like myself truly feel there are products that are non-narrow. And, frankly, the phrase ""the pink dollar"" itself is rather offensive. The money I earn is green. When I touch it it doesn't transform due to ""the gay"". Historically-minded folks may also want to remember that pink was the color for boys and blue was the color for girls in the 19th century. I would hope that developers will start seeing an end to heterosexism and homophobia as being more about creative freedom than cash."