Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old Republic for Same-Sex Relationships

January 27, 2012

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has taken Star Wars: The Old Republic to task for allowing gay relationships in the game. Anyone who isn't in a special interest group like Family Research Council and has paid attention to the way BioWare does things, knows that this is nothing new, of course. In one of his recent daily radio broadcast Perkins attacked the option for same-sex relationships, saying "in a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!"

Of course we know that BioWare included these (and other) kinds of relationships to offer players more options, not because they are "activists."

Here's more from the Perkins broadcast:

"In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists! Hello, I’m Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. In a galaxy not so far far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side. The new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships. Bioware, the company that developed the game, said it’s launching a same-sex romance component to satisfy some complaints. That surprised a lot of gamers, since Bioware had made it clear in 2009 that “gay” and “lesbian” don’t exist in the Star Wars universe. Since the announcement, homosexuals have been celebrating the news, but parents sure aren’t. On the game’s website, there are more than 300 pages of comments–a lot of them expressing anger that their kids will be exposed to this Star Warped way of thinking. You can join them by logging on and speaking up. It’s time to show companies who the Force is really with!"

You can hear the whole thing at www.frc.org.

Source: Opposing Views. Thanks to everyone that sent this in.

Posted in LGBT Issues Religion

Comments

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Mr.Tastix on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 16:53.

See, the thing is, even if there were millions of fanatics who supported this guy, I don't think BioWare, or any other game developer who supports same-sex relationships, would listen anyway.

That's the beauty about freedom of speech: It works both ways. This guy's free to spread whatever crap he wants but BioWare are also allowed to put whatever crap they want into any of their video games.

----

Randi Tastix - http://randomtastic.com

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by tusharnene on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:46.

strange how they don't have a problem with the option of men playing female toons or vice versa

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by MechaTama31 on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 19:47.

Man, that reads like an Onion article. I wonder what it must be like to be so far out there that you don't even realize you sound like a parody of yourself.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 00:29.

I think I can roughly translate this.

"My kid might play this and this could possibly get in the way of me teaching them it's ok to hate, belittle, and bully these people"

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Zen on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 23:36.

Me and my wife be married for 12 years this June. And you know what will happen if a gay/lesbian couple gets married? What that will do to us, or the sanctity of our marriage?

NOT A DAMN THING....

We have friends and family that are gay, as well as co-workers...I would not want to stop their happiness any more than they have tried to stop ours. Who you love and care for is your business.

So why is this even an issue in a VIDEOGAME where people play as a member of the opposite sex everyday in MMO's (I've had a few female characters myself). A person should be able to interact with fellow players in a way that is comfortable and normal for them. Trying to hide what happens in the arena of a social game world is just a sad attempt to keep a child, or anyone for that matter, from seeing what is going on in the real world. People have relationships and lead their lives. No one should be able to dictate what a group of people should be able to do in those regards. If a parent feels that this content is not appropriate for their child, I don't think anyone would argue that is that parents right to stop the game for whatever reasons they have. But to blanket change EVERYONE for the ranting of a few I find sadly unacceptable. It's an OPTION for some players if they so choose...not a requirement for everyone which these people are basically asking for.

Ok, enough with my rant for now. But if he, or anyone else that feels this way reads it, please feel free to contact me. I'm always up for a good debate on personal freedoms. :)

Zen aka Jeremy Powers
Editor and Host of the Zenspath Podcast
www.ZensPath.com
XBL: "PsychoticZen" PSN: "Zenspath"
Wii: "4919 8280 4221 9114", 3DS: "0860-3238-7260"

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Technogeek on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 22:19.

Hate group whines about company doing something that isn't hateful. In other news, the sky is still somewhere in the neighborhood of #0000FF.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Aidinthel on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 20:59.

Isn't the Empire evil? So a threat to it would be a good thing, right?

Apparently gay marriage is a stronger force for good than the entire Jedi Order.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Samster on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 20:36.

"since Bioware had made it clear in 2009 that “gay” and “lesbian” don’t exist in the Star Wars universe"

Wait . . . What? Is that a completely deliberate misquote or is this actually based on something Bioware actually said?

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Technogeek on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 22:17.

It was a community rep who backtracked after pretty much everyone told him "do you even realize how that sounds to other people". The original thread in which that comment appeared was about the fact that the words were being filtered, for what it's worth.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Samster on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 09:02.

Ahhh, so, a dumb thing to say, but still being taken completely out of context in this instance.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Aidinthel on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 20:57.

It's possible they're misinterpreting a statement about Mass Effect, or maybe LucasArts (which I don't pay attention to) said something about a lack of gays. Either way I really doubt that statement could be accurate.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Erik on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 19:46.

I still think the evil psychos with the ability to shoot lightning out of their finger tips are a little more of a danger than two dudes getting married. Just sayin'.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by IanC on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 18:10.

By 300 pages they mean a single thread, with over 300 posts (not that uncommon on a forum) most of which have nothing to do with this. About 2, 3 posts in total. In fact the thread is about guys playing as female charecters...

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by elsimer on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 18:00.

wait, last I had heard Bioware said that they would eventually be including LGBT relations into the game but it wasn't really a high priority. I haven't heard anything since then, no new developments or storyline changes. Did BW announce something?

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by Technogeek on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 22:18.

They've confirmed it for the big list of things happening post-launch.

Re: Family Research Council Attacks Star Wars: The Old ...

Submitted by DarkTetsuya on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 17:39.

"You can hear the whole thing at www.frc.org."

and give additional traffic to a site that promotes intolerance? Thanks but no thanks. :(

400 Episodes and counting: http://www.orangeloungeradio.com/

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Andrew Eisen: Needless to say, a chunck of those might not be inclined to plunk down their dough for Nintendo's new console when they just bought a competitor's, compounded with the fact that Nintendo has shown little interest in catering to their needs.02/22/2012 - 5:43pm

Andrew Eisen: If Nintendo is serious about courting the core gamer, it can't just ignore them until it releases the Wii U. They'll just get their fix somewhere else.02/22/2012 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: A game which didn't light the sales charts on fire but didn't bomb either. In fact, from what I've read, NA sales make up a good half of that game's worldwide sales. Not to mention the good will Atlus garners by continuing to cater to gamers.02/22/2012 - 5:34pm

RedMage: Especially when the likes of Atlus seem to have no problem doing a great job localizing something niche like Catherine.02/22/2012 - 2:20pm

Uncharted NES: Entertainment Industry Embraces New Business Model: Suing Google For Third-Party Android Apps That 'Promote Piracy'- http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120221/08245617830/entertainment-industry-embraces-new-business-model-suing-google-third-party-android-02/22/2012 - 2:07pm

Andrew Eisen: Hard to imagine the games would sell so poorly that they wouldn't cover the reletively minimal cost of bringing them over (shipping, ESRB rating, new packaging, printing, etc.).02/22/2012 - 2:02pm

Andrew Eisen: A point I made in that YouTube video I did last summer. The games tend to sell more copies here so if the damn thing is already developed and localized, why not release it here?02/22/2012 - 2:00pm

RedMage: That's what I figured. It's especially ironic since the black and white data shows NA buys more of these games than Europe or even Japan.02/22/2012 - 1:57pm

Andrew Eisen: And honestly, at this point, most probably won't because they saw their were no more games and moved on.02/22/2012 - 1:55pm

Andrew Eisen: Localizing for Europe is actually harder. Or at least, more work because typically, you do more languages. I don't think its a matter of difficulty but that Nintendo, for whatever reason, has no faith in NA gamers to actually buy these games.02/22/2012 - 1:54pm

Andrew Eisen: Fatal Frame's localization was also announced! For Europe...02/22/2012 - 1:52pm

RedMage: Definitely the latter. I'd still like to know why Europe is apparently easier to localize RPGs for.02/22/2012 - 1:51pm

Andrew Eisen: Do you mean the quality of the localization itself or Nintendo's tone deafness when it comes to catering to the NA market.02/22/2012 - 1:45pm

RedMage: That being said, Nintendo still sucks when it comes to localization.02/22/2012 - 1:42pm

RedMage: Last Story confirmed for North America in 2012! FINALLY! http://bit.ly/yDVyEY02/22/2012 - 1:42pm

Andrew Eisen: Sounds like an interesting story. Nothing to do with video games I wouldn't think but we're big on free speech rights here. Darn shame Slashdot's link doesn't work.02/22/2012 - 1:32pm

Uncharted NES: The 'New' Righthaven Offers Discount To Techdirt Readers Who Want 'Spineful' Hosting- http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120221/03205417825/new-righthaven-offers-discount-to-techdirt-readers-who-want-spineful-hosting.shtml02/22/2012 - 1:30pm

Uncharted NES: Man Ordered To Apologize To Wife On Facebook- http://slashdot.org/palm/17/12/02/22/1448242_1.shtml02/22/2012 - 1:28pm

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