Originally Posted by LainaLou
I've read through this whole thread and after seeing these two comments I found the real issue. Stereotyping.

"Astarion IS gay end of discussion" has been said in one way or another all over the internet and it's a problem. Declaring Astarion gay shows your asses. Not only can you not wrap your brains around bisexuals existing outside of a binary presentation but you have a some lesbophobia and homophobia to work through too. coding ? pure stereotypes. Making a post about Astarion (quotes from discussions elsewhere but relevant here) "not really being bi/pan", "is gay-coded", and/or "how weird it is to see him be romanced by feminine Tavs", then you should really expect people to get upset and accuse you of being bi/pan phobic because that is literally bi/pan erasure.
It doesn't matter that Astarion is theatrical or that he shares his history about two specific men from his past. That doesn't change the fact that he is canonically pansexual. He flirts with just about everyone in the party, including Shadowheart and Lae'zel, and can potentially sleep with Lae'zel if neither are romanced. He flirts with Tav, regardless of what gender identity they are.
If it's weird for you that people who play as feminine characters would romance Astarion instead of someone more "straight presenting" like Gale, for an example (which is dumb, too, he's also bi/pan), then that sounds more like a personal problem that you should definitely work through.

Please understand basic queer stereotypes and how they are evidently rooted in hetero-normativity and not �queer culture�.

�The tall muscular woman must be a lesbian for no reason other than her physical appearance and the over-dramatic pretty man must be gay because how could he be frivolous and also like women? Only big strong stoic men can be attracted to women.�

You hear how that sounds, right? �But Astarion liked a guy! He�s gay!� Congratulations, you discovered pansexuality.

Accusing Larian of misrepresenting a pansexual character as pansexual is... well, a choice.

THANK YOU. I am so, so tired of how rampant biphobia is everywhere, apparently even in the fandom for a freaking video game. It's pretty telling that people will get so up in arms about Astarion being with a woman but not about Gale being with a man even though Gale makes no specific mention of past male lovers. Bisexuals and pansexuals have the right to exist without conforming to what any one person thinks they "should" be like. Insisting that Astarion is gay when there are multiple examples of evidence to the contrary in the game itself is honestly pretty gross. If a male character will have willing sex with a female character and you still can't wrap your head around the fact that he's pansexual just because he's flamboyant or because he didn't specifically mention a girlfriend from his past (nevermind the fact that he doesn't mention a boyfriend either because victims are not lovers), then the problem lies with YOU, not the writers at Larian.