Lmao that one comment from the survey makes me laugh. "I don't hate gays or anything but they could do their business without being visible in society or my game"... Imagine being so off put by one of the, like, two whole gay couples in like, an entire franchise that it personally offends you that they'd DARE to put in two good boys and their dog
It’s interesting because people forget that they weren’t the first gay couple in the game. They were just the first ones to receive attention. In fact, let’s look at a summary of gay themes in each game.
In The Sims 1, LGBT people weren’t mentioned or shown. Gay relationships could happen but that was about it. Townies couldn’t autonomously be gay. All Hot Date “dates” that were player directed were heterosexual. Etc.
The Sims 2 allowed “joined unions” but nothing else. Joined unions weren’t worth as many points as heterosexual relationships and there was no cinematic. A few people have said that it’s said that Pascal and Nervous have a hinted at a relationship but that’s a major stretch. Most of Veronaville’s men are determined by the game to be bisexual so at least that’s something. But that’s hardly anything.
The Sims 3 allowed gay marriage but had a hard time with themes of homosexuality. With the release of the console version of The Sims 3 we had our very first gay sim! His name Leonard Ryan. His husband was dead at the beginning of the game, this was likely so that EA could have it’s inclusivity cake and eat it too.
The Sims 3 was the first game to allow for gay marriage but actually had a troubled relationship with LGBT people. For example, it’s obvious that the game is making gestures towards Gobias being gay but only through very broad stereotypes. That was when the game released in 2009. When the console version finally came out in 2011-ish we got our first gay sim (!!!) but his partner had died before the beginning of the game (Very convenient EA).
The closest they ever got to actual gay representation during the TS3 era was in the Store exclusive worlds. There was an attempt at gay sims in Aurora Skies with the Valquist household but they did everything short of having the men be in love. They lived together, the had a child together, but they weren’t in love with each other. Roaring Heights got a little closer. It included the first gay couple where nobody was dead and everyone was clearly in love, however, EA did a very EA thing and decided that Lesbians were a safer choice.
Pro: That marks our first same sex couple where everyone is alive! Yay Progress!
Con: EA is still afraid of gay men! If they’re living in town they’re either not actually in love or they’re dead.
However, that same town included a second secret gay relationship between two men that didn’t live together and wasn’t mentioned in family descriptions. So the first REAL gay couple that wasn’t hidden in some way was a lesbian couple. The Sims 3 could never seem to make the plunge into having two gay men who were actually in love with each other.
So that’s four attempts at gay men where they were either based on stereotypes and nothing else, dead, not TECHNICALLY in love, or hidden away. And a single lesbian couple. Sadly, since EA was afraid of gay men but not lesbians, our realest representation in The Sims 3 that was explicitly stated to be gay man was a sim from a pretty obscure console port and his husband was dead.
The Sims 4 was the first time that two gay men would show up in a game. They were in the main neighborhood that came with an expansion, they were explicitly in a gay relationship, and they were both alive this time, and they were married. It took 18 years to get gay sims that EA didn’t have to try and hide in some way.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that… That one anonymous survey taker can have Brent and Brant when they pry them from my cold, dead, gay hands.
