The amazing queer sex in Baldur’s Gate 3

em Apps & Games Leave a Comment

Note: This post contains minor spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 romance plotlines and the video below got a sexy bear in it. You have been warned ;)

Just how horny is Baldur’s Gate 3? One of my companions tried to sleep with me the very first time I set up camp. I was flattered, but I had just crash-landed a mind flayer airship after waking up with a parasite in my brain, so I wasn’t exactly in the mood to fool around with a stranger just yet. Since then, though, as I’ve grown more accustomed to having a tadpole swimming around in my grey matter, my erotic imagination has started to wander.

Yes, I want to stop myself from turning into a tentacled monster, but more importantly, I need to figure out who I want to take to bed with me: The dark-haired goth Shadowheart? The fiery Karlach? Or maybe I’d rather have Gith warrior Lae’zel split me in two with her battle ax? Truth be told, even if developer Larian tries to slow my suitors’ roll with a patch, I’ll always be playing this game for the romance first, adventure second.

I’ve also been delighted to discover that this beloved RPG is a special treat for LGBTQ+ players, allowing us to court anyone who joins the main quest. This feature — sometimes referred to as being “playersexual” — is befitting of a game that closes very few doors in general. Based on Dungeons & Dragons tabletop rules, Baldur’s Gate 3 is all about exploration, improvisation, and expansive possibilities. You can do almost anything — and apparently, almost anyone, under the right circumstances.

Read on…

Red, White & Royal Blue, Heartstopper, and the Insidiousness of Purity Culture

em Films & TV 1 Comment

The first time I saw two men having sex on TV, it was Connor Walsh and Oliver Hampton in an episode of How To Get Away With Murder. At the time, I was a closeted 16-year-old at an all boys school, where the extent of sex education was watching my classmates put condoms on a dummy penis. The fiction of Connor’s sex life — and boy was it radical for a TV-14 show — was a world away from my reality, in which I was still coming to terms with my queerness, and my straight classmates were getting on with actual, real sex.

Sex between men has a long, painful history. It’s always been pleasurable, sure, otherwise why do it and risk imprisonment or death? But one need only crack open a history book to find a plethora of sad realities: the AIDS epidemic that started in the ‘80s; the criminalization of homosexuality in so many countries around the world (that continues for many today); the fact that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas — which deemed sodomy laws unconstitutional, since previously anal sex (and therefore gay sex) was illegal — only happened 20 years ago.

Queer culture was born of those circumstances; the ways queer people lived and broke bread and carried on, and the scenarios in which they had sex, which were experienced through otherness, in the fringes, and in all the secret places. That culture is alive, and inherited, today. But so is the evangelical’s calling card, with its “abstinence until marriage” message, admonishing people to do what is perceived as right and healthy.

Read on…

The wonderful queer history of Magic The Gathering

em Apps & Games 1 Comment

In recent decades, society has become aware that life is not simply black and white, that everyone is different, and that people – no matter who they are – deserve to be seen.  With that realization, many in the queer community are finally starting to see regular representation in  TV shows, movies, video games, and more.  One game that has made strides with LGBTQ+ representation is Magic the Gathering (Magic).

From trans, non-binary, to gay, and more, Wizards has found ways to use its five colors of mana to represent a rainbow of people and their experiences. From Nissa and Chandra to Ral and Tomik, we’ve examined the rocky, but fruitful history of LGBTQ+ representation within Magic.

One of the first LGBTQ+ characters introduced to Magic was Xantcha.  During the early sets of Magic, the major character of the story was Urza, a powerful planeswalker with the ability to traverse the multiverse to visit exciting worlds, peoples, and cultures.

Urza’s goal was to defeat the Phyrexians, a bio-mechanical threat that sought only to spread their oily devotion to their god Yawgmoth.  Xantcha, first appearing on the card Sleeper Agent in Urza’s Saga from 1998, was a Phyrexian sleeper agent who defected from Phyrexia to help Urza.

Read on…

Steven Spielberg loved The Last of Us’ queer love story

em Film & TV, Films & TV Leave a Comment

Three-time Oscar-winning juggernaut director Steven Spielberg was one of the very first Hollywood A-listers to throw his support behind The Last of Us’ heart-rending gay love story in episode three. The most commercially successful director in history was quick to praise the episode’s critically acclaimed queer storyline and even sent a personal letter to Craig Mazin, the episode’s writer.

HBO’s post-apocalyptic fungal thriller The Last of Us, based on the award-winning videogame of the same name, stunned audiences when it aired in January, with powerhouse performances from leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. But it was episode three, entitled “Long, Long Time” which focuses on the love story between Bill (Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman) and Frank (The White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett) that had viewers in tears.

Despite homophobic backlash from certain corners of the internet, the episode was praised by fans and critics alike for Offerman and Bartlett’s rich and moving performances and the decision to include – and explore – a mature gay relationship. The episode’s director, Peter Hoar, has revealed that Spielberg himself was an early fan of Nick and Frank’s story.

Read on…

Troye Sivan on why queer representation matters

em News & Opinions Leave a Comment

I didn’t know any queer people in real life, and just seeing that crowd I was like, ‘Okay, so it is out there somewhere, I just have to go find it.’ And I think that that’s what representation really does.

It shows you that your immediate circumstances are not going to be your circumstances forever, that there are people out there who are going to love you and support you, and places where you can feel safe.

It’s a big relief to know that while all of this really messed-up stuff is happening, people really attempting to send us backwards, that young people can go on TikTok or turn on the Grammys or watch music videos on YouTube and see themselves [represented].

I think it’s a lot less suffocating than it used to be, because having access to the representation, it shows you that the world is a big place. Those people who are trying to send us backwards? They’re not everyone.

Troye Sivan speaking to Elle about seeing a YouTube video of Lady Gaga speaking at a Pride parade and the impact it had on him as a young person.

Overwatch 2’s new hero is very queer and fans are obsessed

em Apps & Games 1 Comment

Lifeweaver, also known as Niran Pruksamanee, was originally leaked via a now-pulled article from PCGamesN, but information has been restored thanks to Kotaku. Cheers Kotaku.

The team over at Overwatch has never truly strayed when it comes to providing hot new heroes, but this one in particular has us standing at attention. Not only does he look great, but Lifeweaver is (apparently) pansexual too. How this will be conveyed in-game or through the character’s backstory has yet to be revealed, but we’ll be sure to add him to our list of LGBTQ+ characters in Overwatch once we have more information.

Outside of likely being part of the LGBTQ+ community and even giving us hints about the love life of other heroes, Lifeweaver is the first Thai hero to be added to the game. “The bigger inspiration of this character is the mandala shape,” Senior Character Technical artist Chonlawat Thammawan told PCGamesN. Thammawan had also initially pitched a Thai hero to the character concept team. It is seemingly no coincidence either that the hero is meant to launch during Songkran, the Thai New Year’s national holiday.

Read on…

The secret gay love affair behind Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope

em Film & TV, Films & TV Leave a Comment

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope is famous for how it was filmed: To look like one continuous scene playing out in real time with no cuts. But there’s something else that makes it an even more audacious film, which is the unstated fact that its main characters are a gay couple.

Slipping queer characters past film censors in the 1940s was no easy task — and in fact, they nearly didn’t get away with it. And what Hitchcock didn’t know is that during the making of he film, the writer was secretly having an affair with the leading man. Their clandestine romance lent a whole new level of real-life-danger behind the scenes of this iconic thriller. Because if their secret was discovered, they’d face the end of their careers — or much, much worse.

A messy era of gay comedies is finally paying off

em Films & TV 1 Comment

Gay men have always been a part of comedy, even if at their own expense — prissy sissies, snide queens, and swishy creatives. Portraying male homosexuality on screen as appealing or relatable has been a small part of the long history of film, but only in the last three decades have gay creatives been the ones opening the doors for those ideas. With the release of two gay romantic comedy films last year (Bros and Fire Island), the industry may finally have come out of the closet.

This moment really begins in the 1990s, when mainstream comedy not only included but considered gay men. Called the “golden era” of queer cinema, the swell of gay stories wasn’t just limited to art-house or indie circles, either, as bigger-budget studio projects were greenlit for wide release in order to capitalize on what studios saw as a potential market.

In a newly post-AIDS-crisis America, these mainstream comedies not only let gay men exist joyfully on screen, but also humanized them to straight audiences. The prominent example is The Birdcage, which adapted La Cage aux Folles for American audiences. The 1996 film stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane (who was closeted at the time) as two gay club owners out to convince their son’s new in-laws that they are in fact a Straight Conservative Family. What was revolutionary at the time was showing that two gay men as not just partners, but as caring parents as well. GLAAD even awarded the film for “going beyond stereotypes to see the characters’ depth and humanity.”

Read on…

Wednesday creators say they’re open to making “Wenclair” happen

em Film & TV, Films & TV Leave a Comment

The creators of Netflix’s Wednesday have opened up about a potential Wednesday and Enid romance in future seasons.

Back in November, the popular streamer finally released the highly anticipated fantasy teen drama based on the beloved Addams Family character.

The show, which is executive produced by Tim Burton, follows Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) as she enrols in the mysterious Nevermore Academy – which was once attended by her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez Adams (Luis Guzmán). As she tries to navigate her new surroundings, the emotionless 16-year-old soon finds herself with psychic abilities and at the centre of a local murder investigation. 

Since its debut, the show has earned critical acclaim from TV enthusiasts for its clever storylines and the Scream 5 actor’s fantastic performance as the intelligent and emotionless Wednesday. In addition to the aforementioned praises, LGBTQ+ viewers have also shipped Ortega’s character with her optimistic werewolf roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers).

Over the last few weeks, fans have called on the show’s writers to make the pairing, aka “Wenclair,” canon in later seasons. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday creators Al Gough and Miles Millar gave further insight into Wednesday and Enid’s beloved dynamic and the future of their relationship.

Read on…