XCOM by Firaxis Games got me thinking. It has not been released and won't be for a while, so all I have are my own thoughts and the little bit of press I've seen, but I'm excited. Dr. Weir is a closeted man and an important character in the game which is set in the 1960's. He is part of a group of great thinkers attempting to defend humanity from supernatural threats. Let's talk about why this is notable.
The Importance of the Closet
I love that gays are being portrayed as out and proud,or at least out and nobody cares, in games like Dragon Age 2, Skyrim, and Fallout. It shouldn't be an issue. Gays should be treated as equals. Who we fall in love with and who we have sex with should not be huge factors in how we save the world, except, this isn't reality and was nowhere near reality in our not-too-distant-past. Our queer brothers and sisters were forced to hide and subjected to battery, blackmail, blackballing and humiliation. There was not a community to fall back on, there was no PFLAG; you were diseased. Something was wrong with you. You were crazy. Many believed this. Gay as identity in my research on the subject didn't come into being until the 70's. Homosexuality became more visible after WWII, but it was seen on an individual basis, a few who who had chosen same sex lovers, strangers in society, products of war maybe. We had to create a culture, see ourselves as a group to even find a closet to come out of, and that didn't happen until the late 60's early 70's. In 1973 The American Psychiatric Association changed it's entry in the DSM (Diagnotic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to ego-dystonic homosexuality, saying that homosexuality itself was not a disease, the problem lay with individuals uncomfortable with their sexuality. Even then being queer was tough, gay men themselves had only straight society to base their identity on, thus the question, "Who was the man and who was the woman?" in gay relationships. Then came the, "Gay men can be doctors and lumberjacks and gay women can be pretty and feminine (interesting how men got career as identity and women got gender markers). If you can find the book
The Homosexuals, read it. It is a fascinating and tragic picture of the gay movement in the 70's. It's a series of interviews with "successful," "attractive," and "masculine" men and it is meant to show that being gay doesn't stop us, but within these interviews you can see these men's deep sadness and inability to make connections or find lasting happiness in their success, and their need to prove how manly they are. Many of the bravest of us were shoved in the background because the ladies weren't feminine enough and the men were too fae. The drag queens started our revolution and then were pushed into the closet. The 80's brought AIDS and we were seen by the greater culture at best as tragic victims and at worst cursed and toxic. Every decade brought us a little further and every decade we found new strength, our own strength away from masculine and feminine. All glorious really, all painful, all triumphant, all beautiful, all ours. That is our past and it deserves to be seen and we should be proud of it.
The closet is our history. The brave struggle of our forebears brought us to where we are now. By acknowledging that in their game Firaxis and 2K situate the queer community as part of American history. We get to see a gay man contributing through science and courage to our country and our world. We get to see the hatred and vitriol flung at him, and not just us, but anyone who plays the game. We get to see his struggle with self-hatred that was so much a part of who we were. The USA won't be shown as a perfect country and example to the world and the good ol' days were not better. These messages I believe are vital. Our past can be ugly and sharp-edged, but it should not be glossed over and ignored, and youth today in and out of our community shouldn't just see us in our fabulousness or just shrug and say, "being gay is no big deal," while it is fantastic that is the pervading view it misses our pain and our fight with ourselves, with our world, our society, our families, our bodies.
Dr. Weir's story is not the focus of the game and from what I've read players will get to delve into various characters backstories, all of whom were driven into this fringe department because of their fringe status in society that kept them from moving up normal ladders to success. This is also great. because we are not the only ones with painful pasts, and then the game doesn't become something just trying to make a statement; it becomes part of American history. I hope they do us proud.
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