That would only ring true though if within each race gender roles and sexuality were enforced along similar lines, which they are clearly not - as I mentioned before women are not bound to be 'barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen' raising the children, they can go off to war or go into politics, and even take another woman as their wife (as my character has done). This clearly shows that the birth rate does not seem to be negatively reflected by non traditional gender roles and sexuality within each race, making the 'no interracial relationships because it impact on the birth rate' arguement meaningless.

No, that is clearly a social construct - given that the Spoken races were all stated as being originally "tribes" in Eorzea's creation story, it's clear that in Eorzea's early history each race developed their own civilizations based along racial lines and thus the malign tumor of racism developed with it, and thus the social faux pas of mixed racial relationships, which has only continued to fester into the present day.

Quote Originally Posted by Annana View Post
Also of note is the two men in the Wanderer's Palace Hard Mode quest. They were driven away from their home, not because they're gay, but because they're different races. Fits quite nicely with the tone of Hilda being a crossbreed and therefore shunned.

Eternal Bonding isn't something to point at as the simple defining thing either. It's well known that Adventurers are quirky to say the least. The general populace probably just wave off our interracial marriages as another oddity of the lifestyle.
Actually, it is, there was at least one example of a same sex marriage between npcs shown in the game (or at least referred to) - during the first 'Rising' event in 2014, the Rising vendor npc, who was a blonde-haired Midlander woman dressed in Minfilia's old version 1.0 outfit, if the player selected 'Small Talk', she states that "her wife made the outfit for her" (paraphrased). This was just before the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding was added to the game if I remember rightly, so it basically showed then and there that same sex marriage is not just something for players.

As it is, the npcs during the Ceremony make no distinction if those being bonded are different or same sex or different races. Everyone is treated the same under the eyes of the Twelve.