I noticed an article on BBC News that Nintendo is refusing to allow gay characters in their Tomodachi life game(which is supposed to simulate real life, I guess similar to the Sims). I showed it to my son, who LOVES Nintendo (of course!). He was very disappointed, and I shared his reaction to Nintendo via email and want to share it with you.
See below for background and my email...
My son has grown up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He has been surrounded by diversity and so far I have been amazed at how completely lacking he is in any kind of prejudiced base on race, gender or sexual orientation. It genuinely doesn't seem to enter his mind. About the only people he seems prejudiced against are Republicans...but that probably stems from us referring to people like Cheney and Kissinger as "super villains" during my son's superhero/supervillain stage.
My wife teaches Karate at a dojo for women and LGBT. My son has stayed at their childcare regularly so has often interacted with LGBT individuals. To him it is a part of normality. When he was much younger I had quite a proud moment when he was watching the kid's show "Peep and the Big Wide World" (which I found amusing mainly because of the somewhat snarky narration by Joan Cussack).
There are three main characters in the show. Peep, the eponymous character, is a small yellow chick. Quack is a big, rather arrogant duck who looks something like an eggplant. And Chirp is a slightly bitchy robin. My son observed that Quack is a boy and Chirp is a girl (their genders are clearly indicated in the show). Then he asked me what gender Peep was. I replied that I didn't know, it wasn't really made clear. Jacob thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe Peep is transgendered."
I like my son!
When our good friend, John Liu, ran for mayor of NYC, we marched with him during the Brooklyn Pride Parade. Jacob marched right next to John, proudly waving a rainbow flag.
So when Nintendo basically indicates they don't think gays are part of normal life by refusing to have gay characters in their Tomodachi Life game, my son does NOT like it. So here is my email to Nintendo:
My son (age 9) loves Nintendo. He particularly loves Pokémon and Mario. The Nintendo store is one of his favorite places to go. However, when I showed him that Nintendo is discriminating against gays in Tomodachi Life he was very disappointed and says he doesn't want to go to the Nintendo store for awhile. His comment was, "But gay people can be awesome, just like the rest of us."
I think you should reconsider your policy. It is needlessly foolish and discriminatory.
Perhaps you would like to email as well?
http://www.nintendo.com/...