[Ansteorra] Same-Gender Consort Proposal

[Jeffrey Clark]

"Considering the other things we do that are not historically accurate it
would seem allowing people to fight for crown would be a good thing. We may
play a game based on pre 1600 but our minds should not be stuck there as
well."

Wait a moment! How do we *not *allow them to fight for crown? Do we also
not allow those who are not in romantic relationships to fight in crown or
become monarchs?

How is saying: "our tradition holds that ruling monarchs need to be
king/queen" discriminatory? Certainly it favors those who are in
heteronormative romantic relationships, however I am sure that there are
any number of competitors who are not: those who are gay, those who aren't
romantically inclined to anyone at the time, those who's significant others
don't/can't play...

Certainly it is *nice* to be able to fight for "the one who inspires" you;
however such a luxury is not available to everyone; and I doubt that most
period nobles (much less, monarchs) had the luxury of representing "their
inspiration".

What is wrong with a little persona play to nod towards tradition,
represent your inspiration, and cause courts to be a little more fun? Take
a puppet king/queen that was forced on you (certainly *that* is a period
situation) and then haul your real love up to the throne and give them some
special honour and favour them over your official consort. I'm sure there
are a lot of potential consorts who would be willing to play along. You can
even theme some events on the idea:

Many Renaissance nobles would have "Classical" paintings commissioned of
idyllic scenes taken from Grecian or Roman mythology, and they would pay
the painter to use their mistress as the model for Aphrodite or Athena or
whoever; and because it was a classical scene -- there was no problem that
this Greek goddess was essentially nude. To the casual observer, it was a
painting of Aphrodite -- but to the one noble it was a nude of his lover.

Why not have events where -- rather than bards and artisans honouring the
royal couple -- they honour "distant/secret loves" or somesuch? That would
really be fun.

--AS Zorzi