Fallout 4’s “LGBT Family” Mod Sparks Death Threats

The game modification was meant to create a more LGBT-inclusive game but inspired homophobic hate instead.
From: NewNowNext

Post-apocalyptic role-playing video game series Fallout has been a hit with gaymers since 1998 when Fallout 2 became the first major release to feature same-sex marriage.

In the following installments, the series featured gay couples as non-playable characters (Fallout 3) and even included the option for players to designate their character as gay or lesbian (Fallout: New Vegas).

Given the series’ progressive bent on LGBT inclusion, gaymers were hopeful that Fallout 4 would continue to expand its cast of gay characters. Unfortunately, once the game was released last November, players discovered that, from the jump, they’d be paired with an opposite-sex spouse and a baby.

Though it seemed like LGBT players would be stuck playing the game straight, one fan, known only as Overseer777, created a modification that “changes dialogue and all other references to the Sole Survivor’s pre-war spouse to be the same sex as them.”

The innocuous mod was titled “LGBT Family” and was developed to offer gaymers the option of playing with a character who was a little bit more like themselves.

Once Overseer777 shared it on Bethesda Softworks’ website, however, homophobic players swarmed the comments section, posting hateful anti-LGBT messages and death threats.

While some merely wondered what the point of the modification was…

…others saw it as representative of the “cancer” that’s destroying the United States.

But the scariest comments were those that suggested that LGBT individuals should kill themselves, with user Alexdeath seemingly referencing the horrific mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

In spite of users reporting the comments, many are still visible on Bethesda’s main page.

What’s especially ironic about the backlash is that the Fallout 4 base game allows players to pursue same-sex relationships with their companions, which means those spitting vitriol have evidently not played the game at all.