Article – If you have a problem with LGBTQI characters…

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gender-symbol_transident_general_dark_transparent_backgroundBy Paco Garcia Jaen

I wish people understood that LGBTQI characters are *never* shoehorned anywhere. Not in videogames. Not in novels. Not in RPGs. Not in movies.

Nowhere.

Whenever they appear, they do so because the author thinks they belong in that place, adventure, universe… wherever. And there are reasons for that. Always.

And those reasons might not be the ones you think they should be for that character to be there, but that doesn’t matter. Your opinion doesn’t matter because you didn’t write that character. You didn’t write that adventure, that book, that movie. You were not the creator and thus you don’t know why that creator put it there.

Having an LGBTQI is not shoving an agenda down anyone’s throat or imposing anything on anyone. Get over that notion because, simply put, it is rubbish.

LGBTQI is part of our every day life. It is part of our society, whichever society you are part of. It is there, maybe unseen by you, but it is there. And the fact that is unseen is not because there is anything wrong with it, or because those people don’t belong there. It is because there are still too many people who think that and they are nasty, intolerant and very aggressive.

So plenty of authors, plenty of companies have decided to leave that side of daily life unrepresented for a long time. To avoid that kind of people.

That doesn’t mean that when a company includes a character they do so out of a political agenda or anything like that, but because they are looking at their demographics and they want to represent and support everyone, not just the minority who rather not see anything they can’t understand or simply dislike in their products.

Lots of companies have been doing truly great and more companies will keep doing great and greater things. Green Ronin, Paizo, Pelgrane Press, Margaret Weiss Productions, Modiphius, Cubicle 7 and many, many others I can’t even remember.

Amazing people fight every single day to stop the bigotry not because they have agendas they want to impose, but because there are existing agendas that must be changed for everyone’s sake.

So when you see a character and you think “there is no point in that character being there”, wait a bit. Breathe in and be honest with yourself. Aren’t you really saying that *you* can’t find a point because the character gender or orientation is something you disagree with?

And don’t get me wrong. It’s OK if you want to think that. You are the master of your thoughts, but that doesn’t mean you are right or that the rest of the world should bend to your vision.

You are, in fact, wrong.

And my question to you would be what are you doing in the hobby? What are you doing being part of something that doesn’t have space for you?

Find another hobby. Or simply shut up and put up with some real-life element in your fantasy setting.

Because the idea that those characters you have a problem with shouldn’t be there is the fantasy.

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