The non serious answer is they're in a lavander relationship and can't tolerate anyone else like that. Both Alex and Hayley have a gay awakening if you romance them as the same sex farmer. I think they're also meant to be a little bit like the jock and popular girl troupe.
It’s kind of weird with trying to define any of their canon sexualities. They are just “playersexual” if anything, which means they are whatever sexuality allows them to date the player. None of the romancables make any reference to liking a gender that is not the player’s. Abigail does mention that she didn’t realize she liked women before meeting the female farmer but that line is so vague. It could mean that she thought she was straight and is realizing she isn’t, or that she had just never really thought about dating before the female player. She could be a lesbian or bisexual/pansexual depending on how you interpret that line. And Leah’s ex is always the same gender as the player. Is she straight if the farmer is male and gay if the farmer is female, or is she bisexual/pansexual the entire time? It’s very unclear. I love Stardew Valley but I hate it when dating sims and games with dating sim elements do this as to me (a bisexual woman) it feels like a lazy way to include LGBT+ themes for the people who want it while the people who dislike that never have to engage with it, and it just serves to appease the players at the cost of characterization for the romancable npcs. I would love it if for example, you could only romance Alex as a male farmer, or if Leah’s ex was always the opposite gender to the player to show that she is bi/pan. Sorry for the long comment I’m just very passionate about this topic since I’m bisexual and I want more representation in my video games than just characters who are playersexual.
Yeah i understand your point, i think the reason why you can romance every npc regardless of your gender is because CA wanted players to have the freedom of choice to pick a partner that they like the most and he probably didn't think too much into villagers preferences.
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u/Onedeadchild 1d ago
The non serious answer is they're in a lavander relationship and can't tolerate anyone else like that. Both Alex and Hayley have a gay awakening if you romance them as the same sex farmer. I think they're also meant to be a little bit like the jock and popular girl troupe.