The Acceptance and or Tolerance of Homosexuality in Vaults

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EnclaveForever

It Wandered In From the Wastes
To make this clear from the start, this thread is not intended to discuss:

1. Enclave (unless talking directly about their use of vault experiments)
2. Morality of homosexuality in reality
3. Same-sex marriage in reality
THIS THREAD IS RELATING TO SOLELY THE ACCEPTANCE AND OR TOLERANCE OF HOMOSEXUALS IN VAULTS IN THE FICTIONAL WORLD OF FALLOUT - TO HELP AVOID NONCONSTRUCTIVE DEBATES, PLEASE REMAIN ON SUBJECT.
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It's clear that Vault-Tec (from their commercials promoting the investments in vaults) promotes procreation among the occupants in hope to continue the population of the vault. Though some vaults were designed to open upon receiving an all-clear signal or even after just as much as 20 years, it could be inclined that homosexuality may be unaccepted in vaults. Any orientation other than heterosexuality may also be discriminated for the sole nature of getting as much "genetic reproductive" diversity as possible to prevent inbreeding. Maybe Vault-Tec may have gone as far as screening customers before permitting acceptance in the vaults to ensure that their whatever traits were not going to be in conflict with the mission or objective of the vault.

I know for sure that the Brotherhood of Steel encourages reproduction among their members and does not directly encourage homosexuality. You can just imagine the potential social pressure placed upon an asexual for example if one were to refuse to engage in intimate relations with any vault dweller. They may also have been tested for fertility before entering the vault. Some vaults may have also practised insemination such as the infamously successful Vault City.
 
I don't see why it should be. There are no hints none whatsoever regarding that in any game. Nobody simply cared, as nobody cared about skin color.
 
Well of course homosexuality matters! EnclaveForever is a "good ol 'uhmurican". How can it not matter!?!?!?
 
BigBoss said:
Well of course homosexuality matters! EnclaveForever is a "good ol 'uhmurican". How can it not matter!?!?!?
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Was that necessary? The thread didn't even really start yet...

Given the strong homophobia in american culture, especially the conservative parts, I'd guess homosexuality would be very much frowned upon and simply not talked about. The post-apocalyptic world is fine with it, of course, but it would make sense for Vaults to even encourage homophobia.
On the other hand there are the Vaults 68 and 69 as mentioned in the Fallout Bible in which there are 999 residents of the one sex and 1 of the other. Those are not quite fit for long term population and there will definitely be some homosexuality.
 
Vault City shows us that Vault Tek has the technology to allow procreating without any sex - "the good old fashioned way" - hence I see no reasons for any homophobia inside the Vaults other than the inherent homophobia of inland 'uhmuricans' as BigBoss put it.

Then there's the 50's-60's angle that the games have aesthetically. Could this be expanded to a social level as well? In mid-XX century they still tried curing homosexuality with all kinds of crazy shit from psychotherapy to electric shocks and hypnotism. If that's the case in the FO universe then I'd say there's a good chance that inside the vaults, other than the ones with extremely disproportionate male/female ratio, the traditional American Family Values were the only accepted norm.

Meh. My two cents :roll:
 
I agree with Hass.

There are probably some experimental single-gender Vaults where homosexuality is unavoidable, in addition to the ones Hass mentioned.

As for "regular" Vaults, I'm pretty sure homosexuality wasn't taken lightly, since it basically meant a drop in Vault population, which wasn't really preferable in majority of Vaults.


ninja edit: Gaspard the fast bastard, his 2 cents are way better than mine.
 
Is there any negative consequence to homosexuality at all in FO2?
I honestly can't remember and now I'm intrigued. It would make sense that there would be people who looked down upon it, but maybe there wasn't and in the FO universe everyone enjoys the gays.
 
Is there any negative consequence to homosexuality at all in FO2?
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Davin as companion.

It would make sense that there would be people who looked down upon it, but maybe there wasn't and in the FO universe everyone enjoys the gays.
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Maybe because homosexual people dont wear badges with "im gay" or something?
Typical wastelander can't read minds.
 
I might be wrong, but NV is the first FO game that allows same sex... love 8-)

I don't remember any explicit takes on sexual preferences in the original FO games. I'm not sure what that would add to the game in the first place. Then you'd have a contingent of FO3 fans that in-game bash homos and then post screens on Tumblr - hurr hurr -

That'd be awful.

EDIT: oh! there is one in FO2. You can marry same sex. there's a hint that you get caught before you get to a tumble in the sheets though. No poking at homosexuality, though
 
I think you can pick out same sex prostitutes, too. (edit: Maybe in FO1 too? I can't remember)

And Davin as a negative to homosexuality in FO2 made me chuckle.
 
Hah. Lesbian sex. Isn't that, like, widely accepted in the male population that lesbian sex isn't homosexuality :roll:

Yeah, I forgot about those. Haven't played as a female PC in a while.
 
To the OP: As far as population control goes, I wouldn't rush to any conclusions about homosexuality and breeding. Most vaults (IIRC) were designed to house 1000, perhaps twice that with hot bunking at an uncomfortable max; under those circumstances, population control would be something of a concern, and it's not at all unlikely that procreation would be regulated (a la Vault City). Homosexuality would be something of a non-issue on those grounds, as there would always be an abundance of families queued up to have kids. If anything, having a proportion of gay couples scattered around the vault could help ease the sorts of pressures that would arise from too many couples vying for child allotments or a place in a breeding queue.

Now, as far as social fabric goes, that's another question. We do have to remember that the pre-war era in Fallout was 70 years into the new millennium and on a divergent timeline-- who knows what the prevailing ideas would be at that time? Even just assuming 2077 was nothing but a technologically upgraded 1951, though, that era was really a mixed bag regarding sexuality in America. On the one hand, homosexuality was still regarded as a mental illness and a sin and practicing it was, in most places, a crime. On the other hand, it was the era of the Kinsey Reports, the rise of the suburban swingers, and more closeted antics than you could shake a cheer baton at.

My personal guess would be that homosexuality would be shunned by some in the vaults and not officially endorsed, but it would quietly take place, without scrutiny or witch-hunts. It would probably be a mum issue, not talked much about and a bit more common than most probably assumed. As with most things, it would depend on the social situation and evolving conditions in any particular vault, the inclinations of the Overseer, and the nature of the assigned experiment, but in general, that's how I see it going.
 
Well the majority of vaults weren't designed to last a generation so it doesn't really matter in those cases. And overall they weren't meant to save anyone. There were 17 control vaults actually designed to act as advertised. But control vaults only had to last a few decades before going topside so people didn't need to have kids in the vault itself before moving out. Even with vaults staying under longer than a generation people not having kids due to asexuality, homosexuality or infertility wouldn't be a massive issue.
 
Given that Vauts are planned communities (baby boom in an isolated Vault = bad), I wager people would less concerned with who sleeps with who, but rather getting everyone to donate sperm samples and complying with the breeding cycles.
 
Maybe they just stuck all the homosexuals in one vault. The way Vault-Tec is (or was... I guess), that would not be surprising.
 
Before this, Vault-Tec has build a gaydar, I'll guess. Otherwise I cannot imagine how they found out who belongs into the gay vault and who doesn't.
 
Just play Fo1,2 and NV to learn about vaults.
Not just thinking about vaults with stupid vault of fo3.
fo3 isn't Fallout. it just use name of Fallout and copied lots of feature because of laziness. so if you want to learn about Fallout, try other Fallout that are not 3.
 
Lexx said:
Before this, Vault-Tec has build a gaydar, I'll guess. Otherwise I cannot imagine how they found out who belongs into the gay vault and who doesn't.
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Vault-tec application for the Vault project
Are you:
Homosexual __ Hetero sexual __
 
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