I don't know about you, but I love gaming. In this article, I wanted to talk about the great representation that we get in the gaming industry. It's not just TV shows and movies that have come leaps and bounds in terms of representing our community, after all. To that end, I want to talk about one of my personal favorite games and franchises, which is The Sims. For this article, I want to talk about The Sims 4 in particular.

I'm sure many of you have played The Sims at some stage in your life. If not, then for those of you who do not know what it is, The Sims is a life simulation game where you can create your own person (Sim). You are then basically able to live out their life to do - or become - almost whatever you want. There are so many options, especially if you get the expansion packs, which add many more options to the games. But, what is it about this game that represents the community and makes it one of my favorites? Well, it's the fact that you can have same-sex relationships. The Sims lets you marry your sim to any other adult sim of your choice. Not only that, but you can then adopt or have children. It's wonderful to be able to live out your life through The Sims, especially if you have never had the opportunity to be out and open about your identity.

If you have never played The Sims before, I would definitely recommend it; it's a lot of fun! Not only for the representation, but all of the other things that make up the game, such as building houses, working towards a unique career, and all of the various other surprises in the game.

Moving on, I wanted to talk about some other recommendations I have. I would like to mention a TV show that I am currently in the process of watching. As I write this, it's October so Halloween is coming up. The holiday will probably have passed as you read this article, but still with the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder, I love watching a good horror/thriller TV show. In that spirit, I would recommend the new TV show, 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', which has just come out. It's good fun so far, but obviously for a more mature audience! It does have some LGBT+ characters in too. It's been made into a series inspired by the original movie that starred Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy from Buffy The Vampire Slayer).

Thank you for reading! Until next time!

Hello, and welcome back to another edition of LGBTQ+ News. In this issue, I would like to present some more local news tied in with a topic that is often being discussed around the world. On the 26th of September 2021, citizens from Switzerland were asked to vote on several topics, including a referendum on same-sex marriage. Until now, same-sex marriage was not legal in Switzerland, but in December 2020, the Swiss parliament had decided to pass a law allowing for same-sex marriage that had already been introduced in 2013. However, within the Swiss legal system, it is possible for people to bring new statutes introduced by the parliament to a public vote if 50,000 signatures are able to be collected within three months. If that happens, they will call for such a public vote. In April 2021, a group of people managed to collect the required amount of signatures, hence, the referendum would be brought up in front of the Swiss people. In case the passage of the bill is approved by a simple majority of the popular vote, same-sex marriage would then be legalized as planned by the parliament.

As mentioned above, the vote on this referendum took place in Switzerland on the 26th of September, 2021. At the end of the voting day, all cantons (similar to states) and 64% of all registered voters voted in favor of the bill that will allow for same-sex marriages to be allowed from the 1st of July 2022 onwards. By then, unless more countries legalize same-sex marriage in the meantime, Switzerland would be the twenty-ninth country to introduce respective laws allowing for same-sex marriage. Interestingly, the country will be one of the last countries in Western Europe to do so, which is why I would like to present some of the reasons as to why it has taken this country longer than some of its neighbors.

First of all, it has to be mentioned that Switzerland has a rather complex legal system where the public can vote on bills that have already been approved by the parliament, as could be seen in this case as well. Instead of the law being introduced in 2021, the Swiss people first had to vote in favor of the law, which moved the introduction date of the same-sex marriage law further back to July 2022. In addition to this, the same topic already took quite some time in the Swiss parliament itself, as the representatives of the various political parties had to come to certain compromises. While most parties were immediately in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage since the introduction of the bill in 2013, several of the mostly right-leaning parties were against the law. One of their main arguments were that same-sex relationships could already be registered as a so-called "registered partnership" which had been legalized in 2005. This former bill granted people in same-sex relationships the same rights and protections as married couples in terms of next of kin status, taxation, social security, insurance, and shared possession of a dwelling. However, one of the big battlegrounds laid in the fact that people in these registered partnerships did not have the same rights when it comes to full joint adoption of children, access to fertility treatments, and facilitated Swiss naturalization. Now that the referendum has passed, same-sex marriage now becomes a possibility for people in same-sex relationships, which now gives them the full rights that were already put in place for people in "traditional" marriages.

I hope this article was of interest for some of you, maybe it showed that the legalization of same-sex marriages in the United States back in 2015 was not a world-wide solution and that in most countries in the world, same-sex marriage is still a widely debated topic. Wishing you all a great time while reading through the remaining Prism articles and I will see you all again in the next edition!