Recently, gay and lesbian magazine Out proclaimed Link from Legend of Zelda fame the "hottest video game character."

Of course, when GameSpot put out this news article, the homophobes came out in droves.  Thankfully, Gamespot moved quickly to delete the offending messages, but a few rather offensive ones are still there.

For example, Affect656 said "I would have never associated Link with homosexual culture.  Yeah, he wears a weird dress thing and tights, but he carries a sword."

Wallace_Green says "That creepy to say the least."

I bet both these punks, and all the other homophobes decrying this have a huge collection of Tifa Lockheart or Mai Shiranui (or both, among others) hentai on their PCs.

What I want to know is this: What is so wrong with gay men (or for that matter, straight women) being attracted to male video game characters?  Why is a homosexual man or straight woman being attracted to Link or Dante (Devil May Cry) so much more wrong than a straight man or homosexual woman lusting after Kasumi (Dead or Alive)?

The idea that it's wrong to find male video game characters attractive is annoying and offensive.  Straight women and gay men have desires, just the same as everyone else.

Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go oogle Solid Snake...