I tend to avoid creating specific areas that point to a different orientation and values, not only because it isolates them from everyone else to their own corner but to in effect wave a flag that they are different (feels like they are segregated and wearing a kick me sign simple because they are different).
I actually have enough respect to not do something like that, i do have same sex couples who are mixed in with everyone else, they even have their own children. i also have single sims that swing both ways and other single sims that seek a relationship with a member of the same sex, however i treat them the same as everyone else.
i do however have a club that allows those sims of a different orientation to seek each other out from time to time, it acts like a support group if you like. Beyond that these sims get on with their lives like everyone else.
I think I should explain a bit how I intend to use my new gay hangout. I'll not see it as a location that gays will frequent for the rest of their lives. As I said I have very few gays in my game, and so far I did not play them differently from others. They will not choose a specific restaurant just because there is a rainbow flag on the wall. At the same time I find it a bit weird playing nearly 400 sims on rotation, and having just one gay couple (the Tinkers, not even invented by me, and when I play them they are mostly focused on not baking white cakes and paying their bills, lol).
So, I had a young lesbian city sim found the "Friends of the Rainbow" club. I use certain nerdy DNA strings in my game, helping me to understand growing ups a bit better, including their gender preference (which I some tomes ignored). I know there are a couple late teens who very well might join a gay community. These sims obviously needs a way to find each other. This far the club has only two members, LOL, and the adjusted city location (Waterside...) is the club's hangout, but it basically serves as a restaurant/café for anyone who drops by and don't mind the male host wearing a long dress etc. I just want the place to have a different aura, I've visited a few such RL places and they normally have a unique atmosphere in a good, quirky and including way. I'll need to work more on the interior and adding a small stage might be a great touch. Anyway, the gay community going there will mainly be those youngsters just coming out, mainly late teens/fresh young adults. A place they will feel included during a limited but important period of their lives. I was thinking the restaurant could be owned by a gay couple, but it is already owned by a noble trust, lol, so I'll just ignore the ownership imagining the place just got rented by someone new.
Ooups, writing too much again, while I should rather be busy searching for members for that rainbow club
Uhm... I never saw it this way, but technically all worlds in my saved games are gay hangouts. Maybe I should make a lot for the few heterosexual sims I have to hangout?
@Zimz4 LOL, This made me laugh, because usually I'm in the same boat. So many LGBT sims in my game that maybe I just need a special place for those who actually identify as straight
@Simmerville I do like the idea of having a safe and happy place for LGBT sims, especially if you are making it part of your story that they are coming out and want community with other like minded sims. The Friends of the Rainbow Club is a cute idea too. At one point, I wanted to make a club of all my lesbian couples so they could hang out together and be fabulous, but I have far too many lesbian couples in my game to fit them into a club together HAHA.
Usually I just play my sims though without a story in my mind about them needing to come out or anything. Like my main couple might be a lesbian couple, but them being gay isn't the main focus on my game play. They're just like any other couple, living life and exploring each new pack I get, I haven't really done much to make them being gay make them any different than how I would play a straight couple.
To be honest, no. I've decked out some rooms in rainbow just because I like the look, but I never went out of my way to make a pride location. My LGBTQA+ Sims are more or less the same as any others so I did not really feel the need. They hook up at the same places as anyone else.
Granted, I've played this way forever. I made homosexual couples in the Sims 2 before I even knew what homosexuality was.
Although, I would kind of love some sort of drag show thing. Honestly, I'd love it in an update or DLC, but I don't know if we would get it.
It will be nice when the aliens finally arrive we will have a human parade. United humans. No to the designated festivals in my games. Everyone is a Sim, no different than anyone else other than their traits.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Most of my characters are LGBT+ so arguably my entire savefile is a Pride location : P They pretty much just hang out where everyone else does, but this being mentioned makes me want to a Pride themed location, maybe a bar, nightclub or something. That Electric Unicorn one looks amazing : O
Most of my characters are LGBT+ so arguably my entire savefile is a Pride location : P They pretty much just hang out where everyone else does, but this being mentioned makes me want to a Pride themed location, maybe a bar, nightclub or something. That Electric Unicorn one looks amazing : O
Yeah same here, but I agree that a rainbow-community lot could be fun. I will consider that.
Nay, just good old fashion mixed race/mixed occult couples & regular sims in my game. However, I always loved God's Rainbow.
That's beautiful too, and of course have your game your way. It must be noted however that gay people are just as old-fashioned as anyone else, having existed all this time, only erased/suppressed in some cultures (but certainly not all) and also existing in the animal kingdom. It's understandable that it can appear that it's something new, though. When being left-handed stopped being stigmatized and suppressed, the apparent rate of lefthandedness also shot up initially, making it appear there was a sudden uptick of cases of lefthandedness, before plateauing at the rate that reflected the reality that had existed all along, still a minority of the population, but a larger one than had been suspected back when anyone who could conceal it, did, due to the social and often physical repercussions of being openly left-handed.
Mixed-race coupling similarly was in living memory, considered a crime on religious and social grounds (for which reason my mother's cousins in the same town disavowed all relation to her branch of the family) but thankfully that's also fallen to the wayside once it was challenged and scrutinized.
Gay people are also 'regular people', just a minority of the general populace who have been misunderstood and mischaracterized for a long time.
God's rainbow is valid and good 😀
Racism is EVERYONE's fight #BLM #StopAsianHate
Let's make Liberty and Justice For All a reality.
I don't have any Pride locations, but it would be cool if we could have gay bars/ lounges. It could be a lot trait, only lgbt sims could go to the venue, and find dates.
But then again, I guess all sims are technically bisexual, so maybe that wouldn't make sense. I wish sims could be exclusively gay, straight or bisexual, as well as choose their own gender. Like a trait slot or something.
A Pride location would be like a Chinatown in both it's purpose and effect.
If you look at these places in the real world, and as a native of San Francisco I'm blessed with the 2 most famous of them both being in my hometown, ask why they formed and what purpose they serve and the answers come back to some very unpleasant events and motives.
These are communities that were formed to protect people against attack in the case of the Castro District, and because the city forced them to live in cramped underserved quarters where they could be more easily targeted in the case of Chinatown.
Neither is a natural thing.
Castro District gave people the ability to organize their political and economic power together in order to change laws to go from having their heads bashed in by police to being in City Hall and able to hire and fire those police... It gave them a 'crowd' so when the cops showed up, there'd be a million of them standing around making it harder to beat one guy to death.
Chinatown was created because the city made laws that all Asians had to live with in a tiny few square blocks, where they could cut off many city services, defund their schools, beat them to a pulp if they tried to walk across the street to the next neighborhood, and routinely let white mobs run in and loot people, attack women, and so on... It got that iconic look because the local businesses got together and met with the architects of Disneyland to come up with a 'theme' in order to turn a forced ghetto into a tourist attraction as a way to make the place safe to live in. Suddenly the city went from using the ghetto to abuse them, to having a financial stake in promoting it to visitors.
Now you have to ask yourself if the LGBTQ sims of your game world are a people at risk of sudden violence and/or discrimination from the other sims. If not - they don't need a rally point to protect themselves.
If your 'imaginary world' of your Sims game either has moved past bigotry or is some alternative universe that never had it, ethnic and 'identity based' districts would not have a need to exist.
That noted, we obviously exist in the real world, so having things like Pride symbols / flags to place inside your game is important not for the sims that live there, but for the human that is playing them as a way to feel that this space was provided for their play by a real world community that values them.
.
I don't use Discord because it doesn't support multiple accounts and I don't need folks at work wondering what I'm doing even on my own time. Until Discord catches up with every single other voice / video conferencing system, I limit where I use it:
I have several LGBT sims, and I do have a Pride holiday early in the summer, but I don't have a specific location for it. That pride pavilion from the gallery looked great, but I haven't really felt like I have a need (or the empty space) for it. Mostly my sims just spend the day at their favorite park with their friends and families, grilling out, drinking cold drinks, dancing, and telling stories. (But then most of my holidays have the "telling stories" activity; for me, it's not a holiday without reminiscing about the past.)
I don't have a specific place for my Sims, but each of my save files are a mixture of everything.
I tend to create fandom type Sims, but I make more then one of the same Sim in each save file, and unless it is a canon pairing I am trying to get, my Sims can be with whoever they want to be.
In a couple files, I have a gay couple, that have their own biological kids, I was having a blast when I found out they could in Create a Sim. One couple has two daughters, while the other couple had a son and daughter. I have two female Sims that married in one save file, and adopted two girls.
Most of my Sims, who aren't based on fandoms, lean more into the mixed race. I usually make a couple, and give them six teens, and let me tell you the mixtures are really nice.
I created two couples in my Sims 2, which I plan to bring back in Sims 4, and this time they can have a biological child. One couple was two women, who had a son, and the other one was a male couple that had a daughter.
Most of my families do mostly follow the "nuclear" family type set up, but with a bunch of kids. For example, mom and dad, with the minimum of three kids, and a max of six kids when I start off. I create a lot of single Sims and other types of families as well. Then, I just pretty much go from there.
Nope, no need for one. My sims Pride follow them wherever they go.
Give our Vampires back their fangs!!! Reverse the Nerf!!! Occult simmers should not be shoved aside for the "realism players"! It's time Occult lovers/players started to demand equal treatment. #JusticeForOccults
Nope. Nobody cares who my sim loves or the fact that he has 1 wife, 3 girlfriends, 6 boyfriends and who knows how many love interests of each gender so since absolutely nobody cares, there's no need to bring it in.
A Pride location would be like a Chinatown in both it's purpose and effect.
If you look at these places in the real world, and as a native of San Francisco I'm blessed with the 2 most famous of them both being in my hometown, ask why they formed and what purpose they serve and the answers come back to some very unpleasant events and motives.
These are communities that were formed to protect people against attack in the case of the Castro District, and because the city forced them to live in cramped underserved quarters where they could be more easily targeted in the case of Chinatown.
@Jyotai In my experience, not always. A reason why LGBTQ people would visit, go to a pride location in real life is to meet other members of that community, make friends or find a date.
For example it is incredibly difficult for a gay man to flirt in a non-gay bar because there is no way of knowing if the other person will be interested in a same-sex relationship. Usually when we don't know a person's sexuality we assume they are straight.
So gay men need a place where they can go and know that the people in that place will be interested in a same-sex relationship. They need a place to go and flirt and talk up guys.
It's a convenience thing because gay men are a lot more rare and if one spends their time trying to find a same-sex partner in other places, one might as well search forever.
I completed my new gay hang out last night. Lots of problems with a custom table cloth causing the restaurant not to work, but who needs table cloths in a club like this anyway. I added a small stage, but I play no drag artists, but imagine they will only perform weekends. Other days there are open mic sessions and a karaoke machine can be placed there, too.
I found just about enough decor, but I think these details are due to change over time. Now I should make sure the club gets a few more members
A Pride location would be like a Chinatown in both it's purpose and effect.
If you look at these places in the real world, and as a native of San Francisco I'm blessed with the 2 most famous of them both being in my hometown, ask why they formed and what purpose they serve and the answers come back to some very unpleasant events and motives.
These are communities that were formed to protect people against attack in the case of the Castro District, and because the city forced them to live in cramped underserved quarters where they could be more easily targeted in the case of Chinatown.
@Jyotai In my experience, not always. A reason why LGBTQ people would visit, go to a pride location in real life is to meet other members of that community, make friends or find a date.
For example it is incredibly difficult for a gay man to flirt in a non-gay bar because there is no way of knowing if the other person will be interested in a same-sex relationship. Usually when we don't know a person's sexuality we assume they are straight.
So gay men need a place where they can go and know that the people in that place will be interested in a same-sex relationship. They need a place to go and flirt and talk up guys.
It's a convenience thing because gay men are a lot more rare and if one spends their time trying to find a same-sex partner in other places, one might as well search forever.
Look, the reason you go to a gay bar to meet guys is not so much to avoid rejection - gay guys turn down gay guys all the time - but to avoid angry or violent confrontations, possibly fatal.
Jyotai was actually absolutely correct. I study the history. It was community for mutual safety. In social settings where people are actually accepting, straight guys take interest as a compliment, and then say, "sorry, not my thing", and no harm done. Or will actively let Queer friends know who else might be interesting / interested. There's no real need for Queer spaces when Queer experiences are permitted & accepted. They exist to protect. In the Sims, that's thankfully not a concern.
Comments
I actually have enough respect to not do something like that, i do have same sex couples who are mixed in with everyone else, they even have their own children. i also have single sims that swing both ways and other single sims that seek a relationship with a member of the same sex, however i treat them the same as everyone else.
i do however have a club that allows those sims of a different orientation to seek each other out from time to time, it acts like a support group if you like. Beyond that these sims get on with their lives like everyone else.
So, I had a young lesbian city sim found the "Friends of the Rainbow" club. I use certain nerdy DNA strings in my game, helping me to understand growing ups a bit better, including their gender preference (which I some tomes ignored). I know there are a couple late teens who very well might join a gay community. These sims obviously needs a way to find each other. This far the club has only two members, LOL, and the adjusted city location (Waterside...) is the club's hangout, but it basically serves as a restaurant/café for anyone who drops by and don't mind the male host wearing a long dress etc. I just want the place to have a different aura, I've visited a few such RL places and they normally have a unique atmosphere in a good, quirky and including way. I'll need to work more on the interior and adding a small stage might be a great touch. Anyway, the gay community going there will mainly be those youngsters just coming out, mainly late teens/fresh young adults. A place they will feel included during a limited but important period of their lives. I was thinking the restaurant could be owned by a gay couple, but it is already owned by a noble trust, lol, so I'll just ignore the ownership imagining the place just got rented by someone new.
Ooups, writing too much again, while I should rather be busy searching for members for that rainbow club
@Zimz4 LOL, This made me laugh, because usually I'm in the same boat. So many LGBT sims in my game that maybe I just need a special place for those who actually identify as straight
@Simmerville I do like the idea of having a safe and happy place for LGBT sims, especially if you are making it part of your story that they are coming out and want community with other like minded sims. The Friends of the Rainbow Club is a cute idea too. At one point, I wanted to make a club of all my lesbian couples so they could hang out together and be fabulous, but I have far too many lesbian couples in my game to fit them into a club together HAHA.
Usually I just play my sims though without a story in my mind about them needing to come out or anything. Like my main couple might be a lesbian couple, but them being gay isn't the main focus on my game play. They're just like any other couple, living life and exploring each new pack I get, I haven't really done much to make them being gay make them any different than how I would play a straight couple.
Okay.... now I want a new lot venue 'Dinner Theatre' that features a drag show. What a fun venue for dinner dates!
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
Granted, I've played this way forever. I made homosexual couples in the Sims 2 before I even knew what homosexuality was.
Although, I would kind of love some sort of drag show thing. Honestly, I'd love it in an update or DLC, but I don't know if we would get it.
the electric unicorn (nightclub)
I love the glowing floor/wall paint from SpaDay, they are perfect for this kind of build.
if anybody is interested in downloading it:
https://www.ea.com/de-de/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/94D567D3E0E711EA8E5904A574E83852
WOW! I never knew we had a glowing wall paint, sounds fun! Off to check it!
Simmin' since 2000
Yeah same here, but I agree that a rainbow-community lot could be fun. I will consider that.
Simmin' since 2000
That's beautiful too, and of course have your game your way. It must be noted however that gay people are just as old-fashioned as anyone else, having existed all this time, only erased/suppressed in some cultures (but certainly not all) and also existing in the animal kingdom. It's understandable that it can appear that it's something new, though. When being left-handed stopped being stigmatized and suppressed, the apparent rate of lefthandedness also shot up initially, making it appear there was a sudden uptick of cases of lefthandedness, before plateauing at the rate that reflected the reality that had existed all along, still a minority of the population, but a larger one than had been suspected back when anyone who could conceal it, did, due to the social and often physical repercussions of being openly left-handed.
Mixed-race coupling similarly was in living memory, considered a crime on religious and social grounds (for which reason my mother's cousins in the same town disavowed all relation to her branch of the family) but thankfully that's also fallen to the wayside once it was challenged and scrutinized.
Gay people are also 'regular people', just a minority of the general populace who have been misunderstood and mischaracterized for a long time.
God's rainbow is valid and good 😀
Let's make Liberty and Justice For All a reality.
But then again, I guess all sims are technically bisexual, so maybe that wouldn't make sense. I wish sims could be exclusively gay, straight or bisexual, as well as choose their own gender. Like a trait slot or something.
If you look at these places in the real world, and as a native of San Francisco I'm blessed with the 2 most famous of them both being in my hometown, ask why they formed and what purpose they serve and the answers come back to some very unpleasant events and motives.
These are communities that were formed to protect people against attack in the case of the Castro District, and because the city forced them to live in cramped underserved quarters where they could be more easily targeted in the case of Chinatown.
Neither is a natural thing.
Castro District gave people the ability to organize their political and economic power together in order to change laws to go from having their heads bashed in by police to being in City Hall and able to hire and fire those police... It gave them a 'crowd' so when the cops showed up, there'd be a million of them standing around making it harder to beat one guy to death.
Chinatown was created because the city made laws that all Asians had to live with in a tiny few square blocks, where they could cut off many city services, defund their schools, beat them to a pulp if they tried to walk across the street to the next neighborhood, and routinely let white mobs run in and loot people, attack women, and so on... It got that iconic look because the local businesses got together and met with the architects of Disneyland to come up with a 'theme' in order to turn a forced ghetto into a tourist attraction as a way to make the place safe to live in. Suddenly the city went from using the ghetto to abuse them, to having a financial stake in promoting it to visitors.
Now you have to ask yourself if the LGBTQ sims of your game world are a people at risk of sudden violence and/or discrimination from the other sims. If not - they don't need a rally point to protect themselves.
If your 'imaginary world' of your Sims game either has moved past bigotry or is some alternative universe that never had it, ethnic and 'identity based' districts would not have a need to exist.
That noted, we obviously exist in the real world, so having things like Pride symbols / flags to place inside your game is important not for the sims that live there, but for the human that is playing them as a way to feel that this space was provided for their play by a real world community that values them.
.
I tend to create fandom type Sims, but I make more then one of the same Sim in each save file, and unless it is a canon pairing I am trying to get, my Sims can be with whoever they want to be.
In a couple files, I have a gay couple, that have their own biological kids, I was having a blast when I found out they could in Create a Sim. One couple has two daughters, while the other couple had a son and daughter. I have two female Sims that married in one save file, and adopted two girls.
Most of my Sims, who aren't based on fandoms, lean more into the mixed race. I usually make a couple, and give them six teens, and let me tell you the mixtures are really nice.
I created two couples in my Sims 2, which I plan to bring back in Sims 4, and this time they can have a biological child. One couple was two women, who had a son, and the other one was a male couple that had a daughter.
Most of my families do mostly follow the "nuclear" family type set up, but with a bunch of kids. For example, mom and dad, with the minimum of three kids, and a max of six kids when I start off. I create a lot of single Sims and other types of families as well. Then, I just pretty much go from there.
@Jyotai In my experience, not always. A reason why LGBTQ people would visit, go to a pride location in real life is to meet other members of that community, make friends or find a date.
For example it is incredibly difficult for a gay man to flirt in a non-gay bar because there is no way of knowing if the other person will be interested in a same-sex relationship. Usually when we don't know a person's sexuality we assume they are straight.
So gay men need a place where they can go and know that the people in that place will be interested in a same-sex relationship. They need a place to go and flirt and talk up guys.
It's a convenience thing because gay men are a lot more rare and if one spends their time trying to find a same-sex partner in other places, one might as well search forever.
I found just about enough decor, but I think these details are due to change over time. Now I should make sure the club gets a few more members
More pics on my blog https://simmerville.blogspot.com .
Look, the reason you go to a gay bar to meet guys is not so much to avoid rejection - gay guys turn down gay guys all the time - but to avoid angry or violent confrontations, possibly fatal.
Jyotai was actually absolutely correct. I study the history. It was community for mutual safety. In social settings where people are actually accepting, straight guys take interest as a compliment, and then say, "sorry, not my thing", and no harm done. Or will actively let Queer friends know who else might be interesting / interested. There's no real need for Queer spaces when Queer experiences are permitted & accepted. They exist to protect. In the Sims, that's thankfully not a concern.