rpgman said: Hi there! I am curious, honestly curious, what does "LGBTIA+ friendly" mean (I know what the acronym means)? I see ocassional game threads with this in the title and and a few questions pop up: Are most of the games out there unfriendly towards LGBTQIA+ persons? Does the person want to play specifically with LGBTQIA+ persons? Does the person want to play a game that is accepting of a LGBTQIA+ character? Does the person want to play in a game that has LGBTQIA+ themes? Does the person want to play in a game that is specifically created for LGBTQIA+? As I said before and it cannot be overstated, this is a genuine question and not meant to offend anyone . I am not asking anyone to justify or validate anything. Its not even meant as a discussion, but an actual attempt to understand. Just hopping in here because I see questions like this semi-frequently in threads where people specify looking for LGBTQ+ friendly groups. The average game that runs on Roll20 or otherwise has some nonzero chance of being an environment that ranges from uncomfortable to openly hostile for an LGBTQ+ person. Sometimes people are great! Sometimes they are immeasurably shitty. It only takes one bad experience for an LGBTQ+ identifying player to become cautious at best, paranoid at worst when it comes to the people they choose to play with. Sure, games can be bad experiences for people regardless of their gender, sexuality, race, etc - but for LGBTQ+ people, the vast majority of the bad experiences are because of their gender identity or sexuality. Personality clashes or differences in how people approach their games are perfectly normal, reasonable grounds for groups having tension or ultimately becoming unpleasant experiences; having to endure homophobic and/or transphobic comments or behavior that gets played off like a joke is not. In general, there are layers and layers of subtext that many LGBTQ+ people are constantly trying to decode, be it in real life or on a Roll20 listing. You are constantly calculating just how much of yourself you can reveal to someone new. It's a difficult thing to explain to someone who hasn't gone through it, but by signaling something like [LGBTQ+] in a title, it removes some of the fear and worry for some folks. No one wants to spend the free time that they have with a group that makes them uncomfortable or doesn't respect them, so it's a way to expedite the process of finding people that they want to play with. In reference to some of your questions, I would say that generally people who seek out an LGBTQ+ group do want to play with other people like them, at least to the extent where they don't feel like the overwhelming minority. Even just having one or two other queer people in a game with you can make things feel so much more comfortable. And yes, they likely want to make characters and see themes in games that represent them, which is much more likely to happen with an LGBTQ+ majority group. However, everyone is different and the answers to most of your questions will vary from person to person. Overall, I think it's fair to say that we're just looking for a place to escape and be ourselves. It's one thing not to be judged, but it's something else to feel accepted.
