@Riot Please, PLEASE confirm that Taric is gay

Rionnal·4/7/2016, 8:05:01 PM·8 votes·3,727 views

Before Taric's rework, I was ambivalent about Taric being canonically gay. His whole character was basically a gay stereotype, and I wasn't sure I wanted that to be our only representation. However, his new rework and lore has made him a real character, with depth and goals and desires outside of being FABULOUS (Don't get me wrong, he's still fabulous and I love it, it's just not the only thing he is). And that's why I feel it's incredibly important that you confirm that he is gay. We need more than hints and in jokes as representation.

33 Comments

Zarkkast4/7/2016, 8:15:59 PM16 votes

Why must a feminine male person be gay? Our community already has enough stereotypical representation that does more harm than good.

Taric was never gay. Before his rework he wasn't even human to begin with.

DrCyanide4/7/2016, 8:06:58 PM8 votes

Why should they confirm anyone as straight or gay? All it will do is destroy someone's image of the champ.

Variks the Loyal4/7/2016, 9:43:26 PM6 votes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HaveIMentionedIAmGay

Riot needs to avoid this. Gay characters can be good and compelling, but done badly, they can just drain from a character.

Dumbledore is a bad gay character. He's a good character and all, but when the author of the books said he was gay, it was just like... Okay? It didn't add anything to his character. It didn't develop him in any way. It didn't explain some of his actions. Hell, some people thought it made him creepy, considering his obsession with Harry. Making him gay was a bad choice, because it didn't actually do anything.

Dorian from DA:I is an example of a good gay character. While he is flamboyant and extravagant, he's never outright confirmed as gay to you unless you attempt to pursue a romance, or build a high enough friendship with him that you open up the quest encounter with his father. The fact that he is gay here actually adds to the story. It brings drama with his father, and develops Dorian's character throughout the small storyline.

You're asking Riot to be like #1 here, and just say that Taric is gay. This would have nothing to do with his story, previous or continuing, wouldn't develop the character, and wouldn't explain any of his actions. It would just be tacked onto him, like it was just tacked onto Dumbledore. We don't want that. We don't want someone to just say, "By the way, he's gay." Or have a story where Taric just up and says, "Have I mentioned that I'm gay?" No. Sexual orientation needs to be relevant to the story at hand. It is with heterosexual relationships in League (Rumble chasing after Tristana even though Trist doesn't feel the same, Garen and Katarina being torn between their personal feelings and their devotions to their respective nations, Ashe and Tryndamere marrying not out of love, but for purely political reasons). I would expect it to be the same with any gay relationships that Riot may breed in the future.

SaltyToplaneGoat4/7/2016, 9:46:40 PM2 votes

Taric loves EVERYTHING. He finds every living thing beautiful in some way - and that translates to being pansexual and not gay.

That is, if he has not completly trancended all sexual desires when he became the Protector's Avatar...

Xypher4/7/2016, 8:19:12 PM2 votes

Taric is just fabulous, he likes outrageous looks. And he thinks beauty is manly, that's about it. Neither of the champions have confirmed sexual orientations, so why should he get one. <.>

OurLestrade4/7/2016, 8:17:46 PM1 votes

Taric is a man of means. That's all that matters.

darkdill4/7/2016, 8:08:14 PM1 votes

I don't think they actually want to have ANY Champion with a defined sexual orientation because it kills fanfic pairings. For instance, they remain constantly ambiguous as to whether Caitlyn and Vi actually like each other. They did make an exception for Graves and TF, but their returned partnership does hinge on TF not bailing out on Graves again.

Just saying, they probably will not answer your question because it'd ruin stuff.

LordVarus4/30/2016, 9:38:47 PM1 votes

I think that riot made Taric gay to get a message out; that they accept gay people. Today u gotta do these things to seem perfect as a company. They removed Graves cigar to show that they dont support smoking, they didnt give Jinx tits to show they arent sexfixated pervs and now they made Taric gay to show they accept different sexual orientations... Just what i think, if u dont agree please make an argument below on why.

Valaran Nara4/30/2016, 9:49:53 PM1 votes

{quoted}

As of right now, Taric is fabulous because he cares for nature. That doesn't mean he's gay.

People make jokes about Ezreal being gay because he's pretty and they shipped him with Taric. We're not trying to make Ez gay because he already likes Lux.

If we confirm he's gay, then he would need to naturally acquire a relationship, otherwise, there is no point in stating "Oh, he's also [[insert sexual orientation here]] because outside of "yay representation" it means nothing of the character if it doesn't showcase an impact on his life. Having a relationship would, and if it's of the same sex, then so be it.

Many people assume I'm gay when they first meet me. I'm somewhat flamboyant. My voice is higher pitch than most, and I don't have hte most masculine build in the world; however, I assure you I am straight as an arrow. If Taric happens to be straight as an arrow and only have relations with women, that does not ruin his character. It just means he's somewhat who is in touch with the beauty of things. It doesn't mean he's gay because of the flamboyance just like I'm not gay because I am flamboyant.

While having a gay representative works, let's keep him from being OBVIOUS. For example, I rather someone like, say, Braum or Yasuo turning out to be gay. Why? Because there's no hint of them being gay, so if they have a male x male relationship in lore, it means that it's just a natural part of who they are and that it is NOT a defining feature of them as an individual.

Afterall, if they make a black champ that is "stereotypically" black (as in, you don't have to see the actual character to know that they're black), then a LOT of people will get angry cause that doesn't look right. Don't use the guy who has the gay joke symbol on his head since creation to be the monicker used for representation. That's an embarrassment.

Aptest5/1/2016, 1:49:51 AM1 votes

Right now, Taric being gay is an accepted thing in the community. There are a bunch of other characters that are accepted as gay by the community.

Since this is the case, RIOT coming out and saying "this and this is gay" is adding 0 value for the LGBT community.

explanation: because you can already point out the obvious characters within your own community and feel you are represented.

I feel what you want is to culturally appropriate everybody's character and make him into "your character". Following that, you want to go to other players, shout "na na na na na you're playing gay character deal with it" in their faces and basically forcefully rub their noses in your ideology.

basically you just want to be rude to everybody else and mask your rudeness under "need for representation" or whatever.

therefore, it is incredibly important that you are denied.

Digielf5/1/2016, 4:05:25 AM1 votes

I can't see the new Taric as gay in any way, he even flirts with girl champions in some of his quotes

Oleandervine5/1/2016, 4:17:58 AM1 votes

I also want Taric to be confirmed as gay. It doesn't even have to be written into lore, just a Rioter saying "Yeah, he's gay" is all I want. I just want representation in a game. For people claiming that it would ruin fanfics or interpretation, get over it. Characterization in and of itself ruins fanfics. What the people who think it would ruin Taric for them are claiming would be like if someone liked Lucian but hated playing him because he's black and that ruins Lucian for them. Taric being confirmed as gay would be the same principle; it would give gay people representation and those who don't like it can either get over it or not play Taric. Also, this whole defense of not confirming him as gay is homophobic fear, both on the players end and on Riot for not having the stones to just admit to the elephant they let into the room and continuously refuse to confirm it's existence. Not being confirmed as gay means there's is no absolution, no concrete support for the gay community. Having a "sorta kinda not confirmed gay" is not representation. Not being confirmed means that people can make up reasons for why the implications that he is gay don't really exist. Until Riot mans up and confirms him as gay, he's not a step forward for LGBT groups. It's a step backwards, a slap to the face saying "We know you exist, we imply it, but we won't acknowledge you exist to the public because it's a dirty secret." So yeah, we really need Riot to confirm Taric is gay so they can be a truly diverse and inclusive company with modern standards for representation.