Is it necessary to advertise "LGBTQ+ friendly"

[Vav2021]

While it's not a fullproof marker of a group being non-bigoted and as people have said plenty of these groups have their own issues and often intra-community issues, it's usually a good sign for me and enough to give a group a second glance and see if it's a good fit.

Both myself and my best friend are older people and came to FFXIV from playing WoW in our teens. I won't go into specifics but as a teenager even on sites known for being populated by a large LGBT+ community we both experienced a lot of verbal harrassment and threats of assault and often moderators, if they cared at all and were not bigoted themselves, did nothing. FFXIV and the general populace of gaming now are night and day from what things were like 10 years ago but my experiences have taught me to be cautious and a group saying "lgbt+ friendly" is like a sign to me that an off hand comment about a boyfriend isn't going to result in someone suddenly messaging me they are going to kill me.

I think a lot of people are either to young to remember how is was or are not LGBT+ and never had to think about it.

So far from what i've come to see a lot of in the thread is that "LGBTQ+ friendly" is more of an unintentional deterrence, and a warning to people (even those that fit into the LGBTQ+ community). I've gotten enough information and seen enough stories in the thread where I can say that I can classify it as something to avoid (even if I fit into the alphabet community myself). Yet through all of this, I am still curious if it's redundant to advertise it.

[Raoabolic]

Yet through all of this, I am still curious if it's redundant to advertise it.

It is for the simple fact that it's a universal law that people hate jerks. If the FC won't deal with said jerk then leave said FC, if the FC kicks the jerk then he was a real jerk wasn't he, lol. I do find it curious that the ToS says you cannot exclude people due to race, sex, religion, ect but the fact that lgbtq FC's exist means that the ToS is being broken? Is it one of those "rules for thee, not for me" sort of deals? What would happen if a FC that is "Straight white friendly" or "left/right politically friendly" gets a lot of people in their FC? Personally, I find the whole thing funny because people tend to play games to escape from the real life grind and pains, why would they want to be reminded of it in game? lol

tl;dr: this thread is silly and I'm loling.

[Cyd3l]

It is for the simple fact that it's a universal law that people hate jerks. If the FC won't deal with said jerk then leave said FC, if the FC kicks the jerk then he was a real jerk wasn't he, lol. I do find it curious that the ToS says you cannot exclude people due to race, sex, religion, ect but the fact that lgbtq FC's exist means that the ToS is being broken? Is it one of those "rules for thee, not for me" sort of deals? What would happen if a FC that is "Straight white friendly" or "left/right politically friendly" gets a lot of people in their FC? Personally, I find the whole thing funny because people tend to play games to escape from the real life grind and pains, why would they want to be reminded of it in game? lol

tl;dr: this thread is silly and I'm loling.

'LGBTQ+ friendly' doesn't mean 'LGBTQ+ Only', I don't think anyone is being excluded?

[LittleImp]

'LGBTQ+ friendly' doesn't mean 'LGBTQ+ Only', I don't think anyone is being excluded?

It's funny; I'm a cishet dude who usually finds myself joining LGBTQ+ friendly FCs because I've had a lot of really good experience with groups that identify as such. Despite all of the weird generalizations people in this thread have been throwing out, I've actually found them to be some of the most drama-free and mature FCs I've been in. I've seen waaaay more drama in FCs full of bitter conservative straight dudes competing for attention from an e-girl, or throwing huge fits about 'muh freeze peach' when they're asked not to make transphobic "jokes".