EA the Target of Anti-Gay Agenda

By Matt Mann / April 5, 2012

I was kind of hoping we as a society had moved past this kind of bigotry but I guess not, according to reports EA has been the subject of an anti-gay letter writing campaign because of in some of their recent games (Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic) have included same-sex relationships. EA has received "several thousand" letters complaining about the use of same-sex relationships in their games. The letters have been sent to multiple senior leaders at EA and many of them include a threat to boycott the company and future games. However, EA has stated they will continue to include LGBT characters in their games and EA's chief spokesperson Jeff Brown had this to say:

"Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment. EA has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our games. However, we have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don't tolerate hate speech on our forums."

Many of the letters appear to have originated from Florida which is home to Florida Family Association, the same organization that made claims that "extremists" forced EA to include LGBT characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This last statement is asinine, Bioware has been including LBGT characters in their games for the past ten years but apparently these people just recently took notice. I applaud EA for standing up against these individuals, and basically stating that in the future they will still include LGBT characters.