I'm also gay and I am a bit bothered by those two characters.

Here in Japan, gay people are viewed only as entertainment, like comedians and comic relief in movies, TV series and games. So when a Japanese piece of entertainment doesn't show gay people as being "normal" people, but has only stereotypical characters with over the top performances and, even worse, using their sexuality to make the main characters feel weird, like what happened in Persona 5, I do get bothered. Like it or not, people do get influenced by the media they consume, so if every movie, series and game show people being weirded out by homosexuality, people will keep on thinking that this is the only way to feel about it.

If they had included other normal gay characters just living their lives, (eg.: a teacher who lived with his husband and the characters just recognized this without making a fuss), the existence of those two characters wouldn't be as bad. It would be a way of the game saying "here's your comic relief, but we're also showing that gay people lead normal lives". But the way it is now, they're the ONLY gay characters in the game and just perpetuate the stereotype. Even outside that scene, when they're just standing in the street, they'll always say something extremely stereotypical if you try talking to them.

Even Kanji in Persona 4 was a lost opportunity. They could've gone the "if he's gay or bi, that's ok" route, maybe even use his tough personality as "I've accepted who I am and I'll kick your butt if you try to make fun of it", but they chose the route of "that's weird" whenever anything slightly homosexual happened to him. His whole character growth lies in his love of tailoring, avoiding completely the struggle he has with his sexuality.

So although I generally don't like contents beings changed, it's good to see that the Japanese developers are at least aware of this topic. Maybe in the next games they'll have a little bit more sensibility from the get go when dealing with it.

@nerdmaster
It was a joke to challenge Riuji’s manliness and cocky attitude. You also have to consider the context in which both of the scenes happened. Hardly anyone would get influenced by that. Ot was not even tied to gameplay or anything or meant to represent anything. Kanji’s situation is different because it was tied to his character story, but in P5 or was just a joke

It is okay to be bothered i guess, but this is being overblown and It is disappointing to see ATLUS caving in like this when there weren’t that many people complaining about this. I acuerdo laughed when this scene played the first time m