Here’s a sequined-glove face slap to all those funeral-protesting, Bible-thumping zealots out there: gay marriage is alive, and it’s well. Especially online.
Small Voices …
Zynga, the prolific and popular maker of Facebook “social” games, recently announced that one of its digital distractions, FrontierVille, boasts roughly 650,000 same-sex marriages.
FrontierVille isn’t the first video game allowing same-sex couples to marry. Fallout 2, released in 1998 (two years after DOMA, go figure) was the first; subsequent sequels have all featured the same option. The Fable series also permits fab-u-lous weddings. And when the Lord of the Rings MMORPG forbid players to hook up gay dwarves, there was a huge backlash.
Still, your first reaction to this news may be: who gives a shit? Well, you should give a shit … commode-mouth.
Zynga has a user base of 320 million, and Facebook—where all of Zynga’s games live, breathe and annoy—has rocketed beyond half a billion users. Those numbers are nothing to scoff at.
Though gay marriage in the United States hasn’t attained the same levels it has online, last year’s U.S. Census reported almost 150,000 same-sex marriages, and Massachusetts, the first state to institute the, uh, institution, boasted its lowest divorce rate since 1940, likely thanks to newlywed homosexuals.
… Behind Bullhorns
There are a few qualifications beyond the fact that these FrontierVille marriages aren’t, like, real.
Just because FrontierVille players can get gay married doesn’t mean all 650,000 of those players are real-life queer—some may have chosen the liberal path to reap certain in-game benefits.
It also doesn’t signify that a tsunami of universal approval will sweep the nation, influence legislature, and protect same-sex marriage under the Constitution.
What it does mean is that the hateful misconception of same-sex marriage as a lubed route to damnation is deteriorating. Every step towards tolerance—be it in the form of video games, pop artists, grassroots political groups, or awesome baby onesies—is still a step.
This shouldn’t be discounted—especially in the gay community—as “not enough.”
As a gay man, I am annoyed and deeply disappointed at the patronizing tonality included in this article. Fighting ridiculous gay stereotypes is hard enough and I think the GMP should have a good idea of how hard fighting those can be since it is supposed to be doing the same thing for modern masculinity.
thank u daddy file for ur “words of wisdom” glad to see one straight that dont have a problem wit gays
god has nothing to do with two people of the same sex loving each other and people that think that same sex marriage is wrong need to go jump off a dam cliff as a lez myself loving the same sex is a beautiful gift and all gays and lesz and bi’s should be able to show their love for one another without people like u judging them if anyone should die it should be straights that judges us gays so suck it easy and choke on it
Gay marriage? Homosexual marriage? No such thing is possible. Civil union maybe, “life parntnership” maybe, but not true marriage, which is a God-given, sanctified state. And these so-call “unions” should never be raised to the level of a true marriage between a man and a woman, not legally, not morally, not no way, no how. They are an abomination!
god has nothing to do with two people of the same sex loving each other and people that think that same sex marriage is wrong need to go jump off a dam cliff as a lez myself loving the same sex is a beautiful gift and all gays and lesz and bi’s should be able to show their love for one another without people like u judging them if anyone should die it should be straights that judges us gays so suck it easy and choke on it
Gee that’s funny. I’m a straight man married to a woman and I don’t believe in God one bit. Yet I’m legally married. So I guess “God” has absolutely nothing to do with “true marriage” as you so ignorantly put it. Not to mention gay marriage is just as legal as “regular” in my state, which makes your homophobic rant that much more pathetic. The only abomination here is the attitudes of people like mrmyxplyx, who believe it is incumbent upon them to determine for the world what is and isn’t appropriate when it comes to marriage. If two people… Read more »