I am sorry if I have misunderstood your point. I am European, I admit I might not know what you mean by "Californian vibes"? I thought it was euphemism for liberal.
I give you that this is really a safe choice for them, but I am okay with that, this means everybody can get what they want (I am more interested in the non-romance relationships with the party members, cause friendships really need some loving in video games, I reckon. In BG1-2, my favourite relationship was the sibling-bond with Imoen).
And I don't think this will take away anything from their character writing (as you said, Faerun is super cool with queerness, so there is no potential conflict, like the gay companion story line in DA Inquisition).
I didn't insisted upon anything, just shared some info in case someone didn't know it already. Also, I don't really understand the activism part of your argument. Who is the activist here? The writers?
About Safana, yeah DnD changed a lot in 20 years. Nerd culture changed a lot. Thank god, in my opinion. I mean I didn't hate Safana, I just found her dull as frick. Also Coran, the randy elf fighter / thief. Well, he was frankly just tiresome (I admit I always played with NPC mods, like NPC Project, so my impression of those NPCs is greatly altered by that, I guess).
