Author: V.A. (---.cablespeed.com)
Date: 09-16-2002 17:30
This article is horribly bad. RPG.net editors, shame on you.
"Gaming has a lot in common with homosexuality. Think about it."
I have, and no they don't really have much alike at all, and this article is nothing but uninformed blather which never proves this claim.
Homosexuality is the biologically determined sexual orientation towards persons of the same sex. It also is a word about sex, and not about culture. (see dictionary.com for a write up)
Gaming on rpg.net is people who play role-playing games or their offshoots (as opposed to the definition of a gamer as one who gambles). If you're going to say that anyone who plays roleplaying games has a lot in common with anyone who is sexually attacted to members of their own sex, you're going to need a very persuasive argument. And this article doesn't provide one.
For one thing, there is not a monolith gamer or homosexual culture you can use to make A-to-B comparisons with. For another, gaming is a recretional pastime people involving choice, while no-one chooses to be either heterosexual or homosexual.
Also, gamers have not faced restrictive laws, hate crimes, death threats, "gamer-bashing", all of which have been present in the struggle for gay rights over the years. To claim you are equally persecuted because of your hobby is, again, an insult to anyone who knows gay people or is gay themselves.
A lot of this article is just plain ignorant and wrong. "Both groups protect their own, but are most critical of their own." The writer is essentially saying gay people are more critical of themselves than right-wing hate groups? This makes no sense.
The section claiming that homosexuality is "sexual escapism" is likewise deeply offensive. Besides the implicit statement in that paragraph that homosexuality is a choice, the claim that gay people want to avoid children is obviously false given the many legal struggles to grant gay couples with children the same rights as straight couples with children. That the writer is unaware of the many gay parents and their struggle for equal rights under the law is a reminder of how ignorant this piece really is.
The writer goes on to compare gaming & homosexuality with drug abuse, in a drawn out and poorly focused manner. You know, I long ago thought this article might be a troll, but by this point we are either deep in troll-territory or this writer is demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of just about everything. The article from this point rambles though a lot of other stupid and unsupported claims, but it really doesn't deserve a point-by-point analysis.
I really have to say, I am upset to see this as a main page article for an RPG site. What next, an article about running a RaHoWa campaign (that's a racist rpg for those who haven't heard). It'd be just as offensive and ill-informed as this piece.
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