An interesting topic, which has led me (like many others, I notice) to my own offshoot of thinking...

I played Basic D&D in the 80s with my best friend & his younger brother.  During the 5 years we played, my friend & I were aged 12-17.  We were both straight (although I figured out at as an adult that I'm somewhat bi, leaning more towards straight than gay), and his little bro was aged 10-15, and came out to us as gay during his college years.  So there's 1.5 out of 3 from my first group that were not completely straight, although (maybe due to age) we all identified as straight while playing.

I didn't play again until I was in my 30s & 40s, and I played on/off for a few years with a few different groups.  All the players that I got to know were openly straight (they'd speak of their significant others, or whomever they thought was "hot" as far as celebrities go).  I really don't recall anyone who was openly gay or bi (although there could've been some who just weren't in my groups long enough to have mentioned it), but at the same time they were all openly inclusive of anyone regardless of gender, orientation, race, nationality, religion, etc.   They were all just some really good, open-minded people that way.  My gaydar isn't overly sharp, it's often hit or miss when I get the feeling about someone's orientation, but I'm reasonably certain that I didn't game with any gaymers other than the little bro.

One interesting thing I've seen is a greater prevalence in male players playing female characters.  I've done it before on occasion, I'm doing one right now, and the new 5e group I just joined consists of 6 male players playing 3 males and 3 females.  So, there's that too.

I havent noticed a surplus of gay people being interested in D&D in my local area, I know a few people, but it seems pretty close to 20-25%, which if I remember correctly is pretty close to the expected %

Hi all, Pansexual here me and my other queer and trans friends like D&D and play pretty regularly, and for me personally and a common consensus with my friends is that we get to be someone who we actually want to be and someone who we can be proud of.

RPGs in general have long had a substantial LGBT fanbase.

I'm not gay but I can imagine that if you're someone who doesn't fit in with what some people consider acceptable in society you're more likely to seek the comfort of fictional worlds and adventure.

I actually don't think it's too dissimilar to why a lot of nerds were attracted to it in the first place. When I grew up in the 90's and early 00's being a nerd wasn't cool or accepted in general so I put a lot of value in escaping into fictional worlds through games and books.

I'm ace and all the people in my D&D group are queer =)

It does seem like LGBTQIAN+ people tend to like D&D. Many of my friends are queer and obsessed with it haha. For whatever reason, most of my queer friends love DnD, and most of my allocishet friends think it's strange. There are exceptions though; I have allocishet friends who enjoy DnD quite a lot, and queer friends who aren't interested. But yeah, it does seem like the LGBTQIAN+ community just generally likes DnD. I think it's because openly queer people might be more willing to play a game viewed as weird and nerdy, because most of us have gotten used to just liking ourselves without the approval of others. Just a theory! Or maybe it's got something to do with Stranger Things! IDK, all I really know is that I'm queer af and I love revel in this game :D

Quote from WillTheWiseWizard111 >>

It does seem like LGBTQIAN+ people tend to like D&D. Many of my friends are queer and obsessed with it haha. For whatever reason, most of my queer friends love DnD, and most of my allocishet friends think it's strange. There are exceptions though; I have allocishet friends who enjoy DnD quite a lot, and queer friends who aren't interested. But yeah, it does seem like the LGBTQIAN+ community just generally likes DnD. I think it's because openly queer people might be more willing to play a game viewed as weird and nerdy, because most of us have gotten used to just liking ourselves without the approval of others. Just a theory! Or maybe it's got something to do with Stranger Things! IDK, all I really know is that I'm queer af and I love revel in this game :D

 

 
There is also the fact that it’s a game, so they can play a character — and that character can be anything they want it to be (within the rules of the game and campaign).  It gives people an outlet that they might not have in their day-to-day life, and let’s them explore aspects and parts of themselves that they may struggle to bring to the fore while away from the table.   

That said, so haven’t personally noticed any specific trend towards LGBTQ+ people enjoying D&D more than others.   It might be because gender and sexual orientation doesn’t matter to me.  I care more about the connections that I make with people, not how that person identifies.   When I run a game, I don’t even ask, I just state in the game ad that it’s an LGBTQ+ friendly game. 

So having never counted who identifies as whom/what/which, it seems strange to me that other people who actually have noticed.  

No, it isn't. 

It's a hobby that has always been relegated to the fringes of "normal society". 

Like attracts like and so..... a lot of people who aren't the set idea of normalcy kinda move within the same circles.

It's actually not too different from the anime community. You have some VERY conservative people and some VERY liberal minded people and it's just overall and interesting assortment. 

I don't think it's that the game appeals to LGBT+ gamers anymore than it does cis and heterosexual gamers. What I'm seeing is that Wizards has been making a push to market the game to LGBT+ gamers and it's attracting them to the game. A similar thing happened at the start of 4E when Wizards made a push to market towards female gamers. It took a minute for them to get their marketing figured out. However, their audience went from 20% female to almost 50% female within a few years. I think something similar is happening now.

That said, I do think that the game allows LGBT+ gamers to explore their gender and sexuality in a safe environment. You're still questioning or not ready to come out to you friends and family? Play a lesbian or a bisexual, transgender character seeking the mythical ring of gender swapping. It'll give you a chance to see what that feels like and if it feels true to who you are.

While there's definitely rainbow capitalism going on on the part of WotC, the queer community has long tended to have a higher percentage of RPG players in it than the general population.

On occasion, I have been called to travel. I did a great deal of it in my 20's (thank you, Uncle Sam and research grants), so I am not keen on it these days, but it happens.

In my travels, if they are to a city of any reasonable size (over 15k folks), I have been able to find a D&D group by looking to the queer community.

Which "proves" nothing. But it strongly suggests that D&D is something that some folks find to be a way to bond and come together in a way that does not feel hostile to their existence.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

While there's definitely rainbow capitalism going on on the part of WotC, the queer community has long tended to have a higher percentage of RPG players in it than the general population.

 
I think it is incredibly disingenuous to say Wizards is engaging in Rainbow Capitalism—bordering on insulting to the numerous LGBT+ members of Wizards’ staff.

Rainbow Capitalism is a derogatory term which applies to companies who try to pay lip service to the LGBT+ community, often with promotions or donations, but who do not really care about the community beyond the financial benefits or financial support. 

Wizards—a company that is quite outspoken about how they have a large number of LGBT+ employees, does, in fact, seem to care.  They raise money and awareness for Pride charities.  They apologised sincerely and cut ties when a writer they contracted turned a LGBT+ character straight.  They fired one of their most popular artists when it was discovered she gave financial support to anti-gay entities.  They decided to risk the massive Chinese market rather than regionally edit out gay references in their lore.  The have made choices that upset their anti-gay players and, instead of walking them back, doubled down on those choices to really shove it in the face of their bigoted players.  They’ve changed the rules for events to make it clear anti-LGBT+ behaviours will not be tolerated.  The list could go on for quite some time of all the things they have done to support, empower, of protect the LGBT+ community. 

WotC is hardly a company just going through the motions - these past couple years they’ve really gone to bat for their LGBT+ community and employees, often with great financial risk.  They hardly are deserving of such a dismissive label as the one you’ve given them.

How much of that did WotC do before it had become popular to show mainstream support for the LBTQ+ community?

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

How much of that did WotC do before it had become popular to show mainstream support for the LBTQ+ community?

 
A fair bit—it turns out that, when you employ a bunch of LGBT+ individuals at all levels, your company tends to be pretty supportive of LGBT+ rights.

As a deeply closeted trans woman, DnD has always been a safe space for me. It's the one place that I could openly express a desire to present myself as a woman without fear, disgust, judgement, or hatred. It's really impossible to express how much of a lifesaver that was for me back in the 90's in a very conservative part of the states. So for me, it just seems intuitive that DnD would provide a welcoming space for the full diversity of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. We've always been here, it's just that the world has finally changed enough that we can be open about it.

Really?  My recollection was a lot of instances of WotC adding representation after other companies had already done more.  But to be honest I just have a lot of trouble believing that any mainstream company is going to take a stand for any minority rights issue from a position of actual support rather than seeing it as good PR.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Really?  My recollection was a lot of instances of WotC adding representation after other companies had already done more.  But to be honest I just have a lot of trouble believing that any mainstream company is going to take a stand for any minority rights issue from a position of actual support rather than seeing it as good PR.

Agreed. I think Wizards has been relatively inclusive within the rules and their public statements, though they certainly aren't change leaders in the industry. And unless something is clearly a strong value of the chief executives or biggest stockholders, a corporation typically most "values" what it does because it feels like that's best for profit, though profit is tied to employee and customer happiness & satisfaction so it's not like this is the end of the world.

Ultimately though, I think a lot of how inclusive the game is depends on the table. Because D&D has something of a disproportionate amount of LQBTG+ players, the community will likely be more supportive of individuals like that.

Quote from BoringBard >>

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Really?  My recollection was a lot of instances of WotC adding representation after other companies had already done more.  But to be honest I just have a lot of trouble believing that any mainstream company is going to take a stand for any minority rights issue from a position of actual support rather than seeing it as good PR.

Agreed. I think Wizards has been relatively inclusive within the rules and their public statements, though they certainly aren't change leaders in the industry. And unless something is clearly a strong value of the chief executives or biggest stockholders, a corporation typically most "values" what it does because it feels like that's best for profit, though profit is tied to employee and customer happiness & satisfaction so it's not like this is the end of the world.

Ultimately though, I think a lot of how inclusive the game is depends on the table. Because D&D has something of a disproportionate amount of LQBTG+ players, the community will likely be more supportive of individuals like that.

What I saw with 4E, when they started trying to market to women, was a real mixed bag. I even started a blog about the many things that I saw were problematic. I was also sorely disappointed with the 4E PHB when it first came out, because it still included a lot of the problematic issues I and other members of the community tried to address. By the time 5E came out, though, all of the issues that I mentioned in my blog were not issues anymore. Whatever happened between 4E and 5E, they got their act together and the game is much more inviting to women.

Now they're trying to do the same thing for the LGBT+ community and for people of color. Just like it was then, they're stumbling (example: hadozee) and there are a lot of problems that they're still trying to figure out how to address those issues in an appropriate way. Whether it's lack of LGBT+ NPCs or not hiring any people of color to work on the design of Tomb of Annihilation, they're trying to figure out how to be respectful and inclusive and they're falling down. It's going to take a while and I don't think it's a situation where they're just doing it to make money. Granted, I think that's part of it. They are a for-profit company after all. However, I want to believe they are sincere in their desire to make the game more inclusive because there are LGBT+ members of the community and the company, there is a push for more inclusivity in many areas of popular media, and however oblivious some of their staff may be at times about things like privilege, they want to change.

Someone's probably said this already, but as a former (straight~cis(small "c")sociology student) there's still an huge amount of societal prejudice against the LGBTQ+ and associated communities.  D&D is "The imagination game", where you get to be who you wanted - an idealised "you" if you want.  Play it as you like, try on outfits/character/art etcetera etcetera in a(n hopefully) fun and safe environment.

I can see the appeal, I mean, I'm here + I'll take a good player that'll lean-in to making a cool, fun, character regardless of orientation.