As a gay man, I have a big problem with the Make Jaal Bi campaign.

Disclaimer: I myself was hoping Jaal would be available for both genders, so this is not just me looking down my nose at people who wanted something different than I did.

I remember the gap between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, when gay men had no options at all and we were discussing adding them and what we wanted. I remember that there was generally more focus on making Kaidan bisexual than other possibilities. This I found perfectly valid, because one of the selling points of the original trilogy was seeing romantic relationships grow over the course of multiple games. If Mass Effect 3 had restricted gay male players to entirely new options, that would have just been insulting, making it blatantly obvious that they were just giving us crumbs so we would stop complaining. So while my own personal tastes did play a part in my desire for that specific outcome, I thought it was perfectly reasonable to focus on the character whose existing content best lent itself to a relationship upgrade due to the specific context that came with that installment. That way we could at least get the illusion of being included in a major part of the franchise, even if the company's previous missteps meant that we could never get it in reality.

I remember when Dragon Age: Inquisition was released, and people were upset that Cullen was not available for both genders. This, I found less reasonable, because Dorian and Iron Bull were both options who had roughly the same amount of content as the straight options, so in that case the issue was more one of personal tastes. However, while I acknowledge that my lack of interest in Cullen played a role in my lack of sympathy toward the more extreme segments of those who wanted him to be bi, the whole thing did raise excellent discussions about larger practices involving character archetypes, the association of those archetypes with certain sexual orientations, and the desire of players to see those archetypes diversified in future games. That was a very good dialogue to have, even if some complaints simply amounted to "I didn't get the specific character I wanted."

Now, with Jaal, the problems I saw with the Bi Cullen issue are in full swing. In too many places, the focus on Jaal specifically is overshadowing the game's larger issue with content inequalities and the Unfortunate Implications in how the male/male romances were handled, such as Gil's baby subplot and the lack of male LGBT squadmates. The disproportionate focus on Jaal's sexuality makes it look like the main complaint about the gay male playerbase's options is that we did not get the specific option we wanted. That makes us all look petty, and makes it more difficult to make the company understand what our real objections are. I want to see more people talking about how little content Gil got compared to the straight and some of the lesbian options. I want to see more people contacting Bioware about the Unfortunate Implications of restricting gay male players, and only gay male players, to non-squadmate options. Putting all the focus on one specific character when we already have options doesn't help us, it just weakens our position.