In following with the kerfuffle following GayGamer's posting of the Top Twenty Gayest Game Characters, I bring you the rebuttal from a blogger that has a problem "with people unnecessarily labeling fictious characters as gay".

LJ user Count_Zeroor, pictured at right falling feet-first out of a portal into a White Stripes concert while evacuating a monster-fur bezoar, maintains that even though the King of the Cosmos wears a skintight unitard, has fancy facial hair, impeccable makeup, and sneezes rainbows, he's just not gay.

Same goes for Bloody Roar's Fox, who, if the Count remembers correctly, is female.

And Tingle? No, he's definitely not gay...you see, Nintendo is a family-centric company, and would never expose children to that sort of sexuality. Tingle is just "silly".

The count admits that a few on the list might be gay, maybe.

There are some characters on there that are actually homosexual. For instance, #12, Vamp from Metal Gear Solid II, does kind of work, if only because vampires do have a fair amount of eroticism attached to them. The drinking of blood and the biting of the neck has been described by not just literary critics, but by literary scholars as a [sic] erotic act, and in Bram Stoaker's Dracula (not just the film, but the novel as well), Dracula's bite causes his victim to experience a feeling of ecastacy [sic].

Not just critics, but scholars as well (literary ones), agree that vampires are gay because it's erotic when they bite you. Which I agree with, as just last night I had to ask Florian which compartment of my makeup case was appropriate for the storage of my fangs. He maintained that they should be stored with toothbrushes, et al. Eliza Gauger

I believe we posted some this super-bizarre Mario fan comic a few months ago, with the leatherdaddy-lookin' Super Bros doing all sorts of running and jumping and climbing trees. But this particular pinup I had not seen until I did my daily GayGamer check.

They have been through the tumbler, eh? So rough n' rugged. Personally, daddies don't do anything for me but I am sure some of you out there are thoroughly enjoying it. I think Luigi kinda likes being bound up. OH, and look at the 'shroom Daddy Mario is holding...a tad phallic?

But seriously, look closely at Luigi's g-strung crotch. It's flatter than a mannequin. Is this some extra layer of kink, or did the artist just turn his nose up at rendering the bulge? The world may never know. Eliza gauger

Mario and Luigi: Oh So Burly [GayGamer]

When I'm not sniffing out Kotaku stories, I spend most of my time online the same way you do: cruising for porn. Imagine the little frisson of pleasure that went through me when I spied the following subject in the tips@ mailbox: "NES Homo-eroticism?"

"G...gaymers?" I faltered, my quivering cursor hovering, unclicking, over the words. "Can it truly be?"

But no, it was for naught. For as the (female) photographer points out: "That is my super hot boyfriend!!!!!!!!!!!! (the one on the right)". These rugged young men are fakes. Fauxmos. And one is taken, at that.

What a tragedy. My "I Love Yaoi" babydoll t-shirt is damp and clingy with my tears.

Thanks for the link, Ryan! Eliza Gauger

The whole set can be found here (worry not; there's a man-nipple here and there, but no sack) [Flickr]

In Newsweekly, companion website to In Newsweekly, New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender news and entertainment weekly, has posted a story on a new survey meant specifically for GLBT gamers, or "gaymers" as the article so coyly quotates.

The whole piece stinks of two things I hate: splitting an already disadvantaged minority (gamers) into potentially conflicting factions; and assigning previously-constructed stereotypes to the new group.

First we need to prove that homosexual gamers even exist. Yeah it sounds ridiculous, but that's where you have to start on something like this. This survey is an attempt to quantify the existence of an invisible minority.

I think this minority is invisible because who a gamer likes to boink has no practical application here, except possibly as a marketing tool. It's the same issue I have with the constant barrage of "women in games" crowing: the longer we tell each other that a gamer girl is a rare and mysterious thing, the longer she will remain so.

I'm with Dan Savage on this issue. Let homosexuality be normal. True tolerance isn't making special recognitions of your fellow gamers' differences, but simply not caring in the first place.

As a possibly self-defeating aside, I once got warned by Blizzard for saying "hey it's okay to be gay" in Barrens Chat. Amid an ocean of "stfu fagget". So now I say it every chance I get. Eliza Gauger, or possibly Gayger

Gay video game player survey [In Newsweekly]

Free Online Survey [Survey]