A player for a new game asked me a question I had not considered:

How homophobic is the imperium?

I suspect it varies planet by planet, but where should the baseline be set?

V.

The only reference (that I can recall) to the topic is in Ravenor, where a female Throne Agent character enquires as to the sexual orientation of a target, with a view to deciding whether he would be susceptible to a honeytrap. There appeared to be no value judgement on her part in assessing the target's sexuality.

To me, this suggests that the Imperium probably isn't particularly troubled by homophobia. I'm not suggesting that the Imperium is anything like a modern, liberal nation on the topic, (it's clearly a hate-filled dystopian place) but I imagine that most citizens of the Imperium have bigger things to worry about than what their neighbours get up to in bed.

I would imagine that the Imperium, that is the Adepta by and large, itself does not care about someone sexual preferences. And that any taboos against (or preference for) any sort of ordinary behavior is all at roughly the planetary level.

Blood Pact said:

And thus could vary tremendously from locale to locale. Just like today! It is likely however that since manpower is the greatest resource of the Imperium there will be some preference for the population to continue breeding! Sexual recreation on the other hand, does not seem to be something the adepta troubles itself with

Radwraith said:

Well, when you've got as large a population as the Imperium does (my long-standing preferred estimate sits somewhere around 3.3E+17), you're never short of newborn humans, even if part of that population does engage in non-productive intercourse. Indeed, when it comes to things like Hive Worlds, where the population is already vast, keeping the birth rate controllable (or at least providing some way to siphon off the surplus population - mustering regiments of Imperial Guard is a good way, if you've got a war nearby) is necessary simply for resource management (the bigger the population, the more food you need to manufacture or import, and the more extensive the infrastructure needs to be to support a larger workforce)

I would myself agree that it comes down to each planet, and that interaction between the Adeptus Terra are usually very formalized to avoid having cultural difference come to the surface, or that's how I view it at least.

As to sexuality I would think that the Adeptus Terra don't really care all that much but for strategic reasons they probably promote human reproduction over non-reproduction. This does not of course mean that they'll favor heterosexuality as we know it but I would assume that likely they will ensure that the human population will not risk to start to dwindle in respons to the threats of the galaxy.

That's my view of it anyway.

I would agree with it being planet by planet. With it being a non-issue on hive and most Imperial worlds. Now on Theocratic run worlds that could be much different depending on the slant of the ruling Cleric. Rampant Puritans would likely be rather vitriolic.

Also, Feral worlds where life and death are daily struggles would be more likely in my opinion to be inclined to even more intolerance.

Praetus

It's the Imperium. They are omniphobic.

If I were to make a sweeping generalization (which means I'd be wrong, but reasonably close most of the time) I'd go with a loosely "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. It is known that some men or women don't care much for marriage or don't have children, and there are veiled rumors they don't care much for women/men, but it's not something that is discussed in polite company. As long as on the planetary level the population growth is solid so the planet can spare manpower for military or (re-)colonization purposes, it will be left to the mores of whatever local ruling class exists.

Some of the more radical planets may be against it as an exercise purely in pleasure, thus a debauchery/perversion, and thus serving Slaanesh, but generally as long as nothing outlandish happens the Ecclesiarchy won't consider it a big thing. That, in turn, leaves the local clergy to handle faith matters as best fit the populace, so the previous planetary mores would probably be the main factor in what stance is adopted. It will be subtly different on every planet or even region, but overall, I'd say overt sexuality would be a bigger issue, regardless of whether it's homo-, hetero-, or bi- sexuality.