After more than a decade of fan pressure, Nintendo is finally allowing players of Tomodachi Life to choose the sexual orientation and gender identity of the characters they control — a long-requested change for the popular social simulation game.
First introduced in 2009, Tomodachi Life lets players create customizable human characters, known as “Miis,” who explore virtual worlds, play mini-games, and form social relationships. Until now, however, the social simulation game only allowed Miis to be heterosexual and cisgender.
In a January 29 presentation previewing the latest iteration of the game, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Nintendo of America confirmed that players will be able to select each Mii’s “dating preferences,” allowing them to date or marry people of multiple genders.
Players will also be able to select from three gender options: male, female, or nonbinary.
As reported by Kotaku, offering a third gender option marks a significant shift for Nintendo, which has previously sidestepped explicit discussions of gender identity in games likeAnimal Crossing: New Horizons by allowing players to choose from two gender-coded “styles.” In the 2014 version of Tomodachi Life, some players worked around the game’s heterosexual and binary constraints by assigning Miis a different gender and ignoring the game’s pronouns.
Nintendo previously clashed with fans in 2014, after players petitioned the company to allow Miis to engage in same-sex relationships and marry characters of the same gender. At the time, the company responded by saying it “never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life.”
“The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation,” Nintendo said in a statement at the time. “The ability for same-sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localize it for other regions outside of Japan.”
After receiving significant online backlash from gamers, the company issued an apology.
“At Nintendo, dedication has always meant going beyond the games to promote a sense of community, and to share a spirit of fun and joy,” the company said in a statement. “We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive and better represents all players.”
Fans of the game quickly celebrated Nintendo’s announcement, praising the new features in posts on a Reddit forum dedicated to the series.
“The game looks SO GOOD from start to finish. It really seems like the people who made it, and even the people who made the trailer, know what fans of the series want!!! I’m just glad that they let you pick rather than making it random and untouchable. That way everyone gets what they want,” wrote one fan.
“I was so surprised they just used the word nonbinary just plain and simple. But seriously this is all that I ever wanted when it comes to choosing gender/sexuality in the game because not only can we have nonbinary miis, we can also choose their sexuality AND they also added aro/ace [aromantic/asexual] miis which is something else I really wanted,” wrote another fan.
“WOKE MIIS. WE ARE SO BACK,” wrote a third.
Other fans mocked what they predicted would be the response from right-wing critics.
Wrote one: “The most annoying people on the planet are going to complain about this… and I’m going to enjoy every second of their suffering.”
The Dallas Landmark Commission unanimously approved rainbow-colored steps outside Oak Lawn United Methodist Church as a temporary art installation, allowing the display to remain for up to three years despite objections that they violate historic preservation codes.
As a designated historic site, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church is required to seek city approval before making major exterior changes, including paint colors, according to Dallas-area PBS/NPR affiliate KERA.
The LGBTQ-welcoming church did not submit an application to the landmark commission before repainting its exterior steps in the colors of the "Progress Pride" flag, incorporating the traditional rainbow along with black and brown stripes and the blue, pink, and white of the transgender Pride flag.
In late November, the University of Oklahoma placed Mel Curth on administrative leave after the transgender graduate teaching assistant gave a student a zero on an essay about gender roles.
The essay cited the Bible to defend traditional gender roles and described transgender people as "demonic." Curth and the course's instructor, Megan Waldron, said the paper failed to meet basic academic standards due to a lack of empirical evidence. Both noted that the paper cited no scholarly sources and failed to offer an evidence-based critique of the assigned article, which argued that children who do not conform to rigid gender stereotypes are more likely to face bullying and negative mental health outcomes.
A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a queer woman in Minneapolis after opening fire through the window of her SUV during a confrontation in the street.
Video footage posted online shows two masked ICE officers approaching a Honda Pilot stopped in the middle of Portland Avenue near 34th Street in Minneapolis' Powderhorn neighborhood. One agent can be heard yelling at the SUV's driver -- later identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good -- telling her to "get out of the fucking car" while attempting to open the driver's door, as a second officer stands back.
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