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Home > Immersive Entertainment > Can Virtual Reality Help Crush Fears over Same-Sex Marriage?

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Home›Virtual Sex & Entertainment›Can Virtual Reality Help Crush Fears over Same-Sex Marriage?

Can Virtual Reality Help Crush Fears over Same-Sex Marriage?

By M. Christian
November 14, 2017
2620
1

The only way to attend a gay wedding in Australia is with VR.

People in Sydney watch a same-sex marriage in New Zealand.

“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
―Albert Einstein

We live in an age of unparalleled innovation. Yet for every step forward in that arena we sadly seem to be moving two steps back when it comes to acceptance and tolerance for the queer-identified.

The good news is that many people are using the aforementioned technological innovation to circumvent bigotry and perhaps, someday soon, even defeat it altogether.

VR in the fight for gay marriage in Australia

Right now Australia is facing a dilemma: to allow gay marriage or join so many other countries in denying basic human rights to its citizens.

As the debate rages, a group of activists has created a special place where people can see that gay marriage is not just fair but also beautiful: a place in virtual reality.

Speaking to The Next Web, Giles Clayton of Virtual Equality described the project as a way for  “Aussies to get the chance to experience something they can’t right now and hopefully change perspectives about the fear of legalizing same-sex marriage.”

On the hardware and funding sides of things were two Australian advertising heavyweight agencies: Luscious International, and J. Walter Thompson.

But first Virtual Equality needed to find a queer couple willing to take part in the project.

Fortunately, the lovely Dan Thurston and Thomas Crow agreed to participate. First, they had their wedding ceremony in New Zealand, where gay marriage is legal, which was recorded with virtual reality cameras.

Then the footage was played back to “guests” in Australia who wore VR headgear—allowing them to experience the event as if they were right there with the couple.

“I hope that, in seeing us as a positive model for marriage, Australians can see that marriage equality is a no-brainer and any debate about such basic human rights is dumb,” Thurston said to The Next Web.

New South Wales Legislative Assembly member Jenny Leong added, “It’s bizarre that in Australia we can only experience a same-sex marriage through virtual reality… Love is personal but should be inclusive of everyone and this is why we need to change the ban on same-sex marriage.”

An empathy machine?

The work of Virtual Equality in Australia demonstrates the potential power of social change through virtual reality.

Already being used to treat everything from phobias to help stroke victims recover—and now helping to deal with homophobia—it’s easy to see this kind of technology being a therapeutic tool in creating a sense of empathy.

After all, with VR anyone can experience both the pleasures and challenges of any person or group of people, making it hard to hold onto irrational prejudices when they’ve almost literally seen the world through their eyes.

The future of love and sex

Here’s to a dream that someday we will be living in a world as advanced in human rights, tolerance, and acceptance as it is in technological developments.

Until that time comes, though, we can only hope that projects like Virtual Equality will keep using tech innovation to educate and even enlighten.

Image sources: Jonathon May/Virtual Equality

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.
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