The Sims 3 has Gay Marriage! Why I Care

And no one in the gameplay does.

Lyle Masaki at AfterElton tested the new version of The Sims to see if gays and lesbians could get married. He reports: “…after a week of game time, I was able to get a male couple to plan a wedding party and tie the knot.”

We all know how much I really don’t care about gay marriage even though I blog about it often enough.

But The Sims series holds a very special place in my heart. The game, by Will Wright (Maxis), was released 1-2 years after we moved to the United States. My greatest struggle wasn’t just with the culture clash, but with confronting and coming to terms with my sexuality.

The game was a great expression of self-empowerment. It allowed us to pick our appearances right down to an earring, made us the sole decision-makers on how to run our lives. And two women and two men could actually live and sleep together, even though they couldn’t have children together. And the men could actually have babies (if abducted by aliens), but I digress. It was simply a great step forward in gender non-conformity and to give teenagers like me an opportunity to live the lives we wanted.

9 years later, we are still not there. But it was The Sims that went quite a long way in reinforcing that I was normal and loving someone of the same gender was not the big sin that everyone else made it out to be. And I am sure the bold move in The Sims 3 would reinforce this message to a younger generation.

Next two generations, if we survive global warming, I expect to hear – “Mom, this is so crazy. Once upon a time, gays couldn’t marry. WTF?!