Also, consider the time period that TF2 is taking place in? Communist Russia and post WWII Germany had laws that would send any queer couple to a mental hospital AT BEST. Plus they're also in the south west America in the 60s-70s, when again you could be put in prison for being gay. So many lgbta people COULD NOT be open.
Ik, but you also have to realize that in the tf2 universe everything is warped.
There’s a gun to bring people back from the dead, theres invisibility cloaks and teleporters, there’s a metal called Australium that gives people powers, Tom Jones is dead (but he’s alive today in our world) and Abraham Lincoln in this world was a mercenary, he was the first pyro, and died rocket jumping, so the idea of two mercenaries being together in this world isn’t the most shocking
But if we’re going along with the whole 70’s and anti-gay storyline, then maybe the reason why they’re not flirting with each other in the comics directly is because of just that, and they’re trying to keep it secret because they’re a little afraid. The time period isn’t an excuse to disprove heavymedic
and tf2 doesn’t take place in Russia and Germany, it’s in America, and America was a little more reasonable with gay people in the 70s, they didn’t have to be as afraid as they should have been in Europe
Not to break my hiatus to participate in #discourse (if this even counts as discourse), but I did just write a 20 page graduate seminar paper on queer masculinity in the 70s-
Queer people were by no means widely accepted during this time period, but the 60s were a time period of sexual revolution in which pretty much all taboos surrounding sex loosened, and 1969 specifically was the birth of the gay rights movement in America with Stonewall; queer communities in progressive places like NYC and San Francisco were absolutely thriving, and existed even before Stonewall happened (Stonewall was already a queer space, that’s why it was raided in the first place........). Plus, the mercs are in an extremely isolated environment, and it’s very common to have higher rates of homosexual activity in isolated same-sex spaces like that. For example, a lot of men realized they were gay when they fought in WWII and found themselves in all-male spaces for the first time; when they got home they still craved queer spaces, so gay bars, clubs, etc. started popping up Post-WWII, even in the conservative 50s. [Source: A Desired Past: a Short History of Same-Sex Love in America by Leila J. Rupp]
No amount of anti-homophobic sentiment and anti-gay legislation has ever stopped gay people from existing or finding each other, it has just made it harder for them to express this publicly and to live safely. Yes, in general society queer people would have had to stay closeted during this time period, but this doesn’t mean that queer people also weren’t creating safe spaces for themselves or living fulfilling lives.
Lastly, though, even if you want to ignore all that: the mercs literally kill people for a living. You think anti-gay laws are the worst of their concerns? You think they’re suddenly law abiding citizens when it comes to sexuality? You think Medic would be arrested or institutionalized for being gay and not for the human experiments??????
It’s homophobic erasure to say LGBTQ people didn’t exist or have loving relationships or supportive spaces before now! Especially when you’re using that as a justification to denounce fake fictional gay characters maybe kissing sometimes.
