Gamemaker Electronic Arts (EA) has said it will continue to include gay themes in its games despite pressure from conservative groups that it drop gay characters.

Social conservatives, including Tony Perkins, president of the Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC), have criticized EA for allowing players to enter gay relationships.

“In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!” Perkins said in a January radio bulletin.

The Florida Family Association has also called on members to complain to EA.

“LGBT extremists pressure Star Wars video game maker to commit to add LGBT content and censor critics,” the group said on its website. “An overwhelming percentage of the 1.7 million games sold are being used by children who do not need to be introduced to this propaganda.”

“If BioWare … adds LGBT characters for kids to select as their action character it could be something like Darth RuPaula, a combination of Darth Vader, one of the most popular Star Wars characters, and RuPaul, the renown transgender cross dresser,” the group added.

EA, parent company of BioWare, defended its games.

“Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment,” Jeff Brown, vice president of corporate communications at EA, told GameIndustry.biz.

“EA has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our games. However, we have met with LGBT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums.”

“In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don't tolerate hate speech on our forums,” he added.