Any person can be LGBT. Representation has historically been either absent (as if LGBT people don’t or shouldn’t exist) or stereotypical (sassy gay best friend, butch lesbian, suicidal transgender). For me, meaningful representation happens when LGBT characters are introduced that do not necessarily correspond with those stereotypes. The best representation, to me, is when the LGBT aspect of a person is incidental and unproblematic, a sidenote in their storyline. It’s not about the fact that they’re LGBT, because that is just one aspect of their lives.
A lot of people don’t know any LGBT people and base their opinions only on stereotypes, which are based on what they see in media. This can result in harmful interactions when they do encounter LGBT people and disrespectful speech. Calling things you don’t like “gay” is a clear sign to closeted gays that who they are is not part of acceptable society, even though when the word is used in that way, that’s not what people mean. You might have made someone afraid of coming out without realising it. Personally, I stayed in the closet for a relatively long time, because I felt the only option was to become a flaming queer entertainer, and that’s not who I am at all. Diverse representation helps to counter these harmful stereotypes. (Disclaimer: there is nothing wrong with the stereotypes as such, flaming queer entertainers are lovely, the issue is the lack of diversity in representation.)
WoW is a platform/medium and the way it represents LGBT people (if at all) contributes to the overall representation of LGBT people. Of course, it’s a drop in a bucket. LGBT lives are not directly and materially affected by what happens in WoW. But there are many such drops, and together they determine our society’s and culture’s collective consciousness and judgement of LGBT people. So in a small way, it matters.
I don’t know what community you are referring to.
I’m not broken or weak and I do not need help. That said, I enjoy the LGBT characters added by Blizzard. I will admit that I did not see the Shaw/Flynn storyline coming, but having read the latest short story, I love their interaction and am glad it was introduced.
Not that much. Sometimes, a well-meaning but ignorant person makes assumptions about my life based on my sexuality. I complimented someone on a bright pink coat once, she replied “You would like that wouldn’t you”. Another person once said they would “just love to go shopping with me some time”; I hate shopping. It’s minor and infrequent, but a bit grating when it happens. I did end my internship at a firm because people generally treated each other poorly, but also because they used “gay” to describe things they did not like (“I think iPads are so gay”). It made me feel very unwelcome; I now work for their biggest competitor. I realise I am very lucky and live in an accepting bubble of reality, and many other LGBT people are not so lucky, and have to fear for their lives just for being who they are.
Very little. I do have the mature language filter enabled, just to avoid being confronted with nasty language and gay slurs, especially in random group content. In my guild there are people who use “gay” pejoratively and I would rather they didn’t, but I’m not so fussed that I do anything about it. On the whole, it seems a bit of toxicity and trolling is just part of gamer culture now.
This question is phrased as if I am entitled to something and can be the judge of whether it was enough. That’s not how I feel and also, not in line with reality: Blizzard does whatever it wants, regardless of my opinion. I support diverse LGBT representation and am glad Blizzard took the opportunity of the Shadowlands to increase that diversity. I particularly find the inclusion of Pelagos touching, combining the transition from the mortal realm to the Shadowlands with the transition to another gender expression.
I sincerely wish people would stop whining about it on the forums. It’s not a zero-sum game, as if there is limited representation available and LGBT people are stealing slots from others. I don’t know who people saying ‘it’s just a corporate fad, it’s not authentic’ think they are protecting. I have taken to muting all threads about it, as hate-reading them just makes me sad. The only reason I took the time to respond to this one is because you seemed genuinely interested.