Bioware’s 2011 game Mass effect 2 contains Jack, a woman who gives an indication of pansexual relationships, but the player will only romanticize if they play a man. This is because they removed the option for fear of a conservative media setback. [thegamer.com]
Here is the author of the game Brian Kindregan, interviewed by Cian Maher:
“Mass Effect in the US was pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized by Fox News, which at the time … maybe more people in the world thought there was a connection between reality and what was being discussed on Fox News,” goes Kindregan continues. ‘The development team of Mass Effect 2 was a fairly progressive, open-minded team, but I think there was concern at fairly high levels that if [the first] Mass Effect, which had only one gay relationship, Liara – who on paper was technically not a gay relationship because she was of a single sex species – I think there was concern that Mass Effect 2, if it would draw fire , had to be a little careful. ‘
And actress Courtney Taylor, who played as Jack:
“It’s funny to me because my understanding was always that she was pansexual. So I do not know if it’s just something I deduced from the character, or something she said it might have been cut. that was my understanding.I think it was the time, you know?
A classic story of self-censorship and substitute corporate homophobia.