More Transgender Characters

Story Discussion
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Overwatch does a great job with representation. I appreciate tracer as a lesbian character. But, I do want to see more trans representation. I would like to see a trans character. Representation in a story is important and the lack of trans characters is disturbing as a trans player of the game. Developers, do what you do best and represent the trans community

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I feel like you’re trolling with this 0 post account but: for what it’s worth, we have Lynx-17, a nonbinary omnic who appears in Zarya’s comic. But no human trans characters or playable trans characters, like Apex’s Bloodhound. I mean, that could change someday. It likely will. I kinda doubt they’ll reveal any current heroes as trans; but maybe one of the new ones. Not sure how they’ll pull that off though.

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We’ll find out that 76 has been trans the whole time.

Gotta make sure we challenge any notions of “tradition.”

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There’s nothing wrong with wanting a character who is trans. I think it’s a valid desire to want to see yourself (I think OP is a troll but there are certainly trans people in the playerbase) represented in the games you play. It’s not like it takes away from the gameplay or story. What’s tricky is the execution - they have to make sure they write and design the character in a way that’s respectful and to trans people.

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If they do make a trans character, it should be someone new rather than an existing hero.

There is a difference between a non-binary human and a non-binary omnic. I don’t think Lynx qualifies as trans because they were probably not created with a gender in mind.

He isn’t.

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Good job keeping this in #story-discussion. If this was in #general-discussion, you’d get a bunch of cishets saying nO pOLiTiCs iN mY gAmEs as if the existence of trans individuals is political.

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Bloodhound is a woman, watch her animated short

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At no point in the animated short Bloodhound is referred to as female. The writers, developers, and the voice actress confirmed the character as nonbinary multiple times. If you still don’t believe us you are free to ask the VA during her stream: Twitch

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fwiw Chu said Lynx uses “they” pronouns. They are only referred to as “it” by people with bigoted opinions about omnics (Zarya and Sombra). You’re right that an omnic’s understanding of “non-binary” differs dramatically from a human’s and they don’t serve as rep or reflection on non-binary people in the real world.

Sombra is a weird case because she refers to Maximilien as him, but I guess since she doesn’t know Lynx’s gender she defaults to it instead of they.

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Or Sombra respects Maximilien in some capacity, as Maxmilien is Talon agent just like her, while Lynx is just random omnic for her.

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Bloodhound is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. It’s been confirmed multiple times.

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The Omnics seem to not generally be created with gender in mind, but they certainly adopt genders, either to assimilate into human society or to create their own identity- with a majority of male or female identifying ones like Mondatta and Zenyatta, or Iggy and Luna, and ones like Lynx who identify as NB. As far as gender presentation goes, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between how humans and Omnics express that part of their lives.

Though they might not have needed to change much, or anything, physically to transition, that doesn’t mean they don’t qualify as trans. I’m still waiting on getting HRT and have no intent on getting SRS, but I’m still definitely trans.

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Soldier definitely isn’t trans. With how expressly Atlas News has covered his story, they’d be chopped into pieces in universe and out for omitting it.

If or when they do a trans character, we’re hoping they’re voiced by a trans VA- which Fred Tatasciore most certainly is not.

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There was controversy when Tracer was revealed to be gay- it didn’t kill the game, even when it was only a year after launch. Soldier’s reveal was, meh, kind of controversial, but again, no gamekiller.

In other media, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Steven Universe got away with having casts that were almost majority queer. Rowling’s been ousted from the fandom she created for being transphobic. Things are changing.

A transgender person (transgender is an adjective, not a noun- don’t refer to us as “transgenders”) would not kill Overwatch 2. If we cause controversy for existing, that’s all the more reason to portray us faithfully and dispel the confusion behind people’s hate.

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And including transgender heroes wouldn’t just be an appeal to us. It’s an appeal to anyone who’s interested in actually seeing the full globe that Overwatch represents, not just parts of it. That includes a lot of straight and cisgender people you didn’t account for.

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I am a transgender person, yes. I announced it multiple times in the previous replies, congratulations on just figuring it out now. Bravo, you monumental genius. I suppose you are a conservative, since you don’t actually give any cited evidence and speak more on feeling than fact, repeatedly ignore simple requests for basic respect, slower on the uptake than Internet Explorer and feel the constant need to bring who you’re voting for into every conversation. Like, seriously, I don’t hate Republicans, I just wish they could just stop making it their whole personality.

Apparently every single forum on the internet needs to have a quota of sweaty dweebs who see others expressing their thoughts as a threat to their “pure and apolitical gaming medium.”

We are not disservices to LGBTQ people for asking a company that has made repeated strides in telling our stories alongside the main arcs of the Overwatch narrative to continue doing what they’ve already been doing. We are people with lesser resources than them wondering what the take of a progressive development and storytelling team with the capital to invest in an artistic project of that nature would consist of. If you think that politely notifying the team of the growing demand for trans characters is intrusive, you should tell the people looking for Doomfist buffs that they’re intrusive as well- I mean, 97% of the meta is hitscan anyway, why do we have to represent them?

Lastly, this kind of thread is not why the cheeto puff with a dead weasel glued to his head is receiving any votes. He’s appealing to voters that are irrationally afraid of their inherent advantages being removed as a (virtually impossible) consequence of minority groups having their disadvantages removed, ranging from low level white supremacists and religious bigots to uneducated/less-educated middle class families that rely on the bigotry of others to maintain the status quo. Hating trans people, while a staple of the U.S. Republicans for decades, is not a pressing platform matter for the fascist tangerine with an adultery problem- with an administration this failure-ridden in so many other ways, he’s got bigger blame to deflect to individuals far less powerful than him. The fact he’s getting any votes at all is a testament to how blind this nation is.

So uh, yeah, good job on managing to say absolutely nothing worthwhile in five whole lines of text. If you could condense it to zero next time, I really think you’d have a much easier time getting your point across.

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I said I was trans, directly above this post. If you can’t make your paw do one measly scroll up to sound just a little less behind, you might wanna just go.

And for the record, I just turned 18 and I’ve already been to Albany on lobbying trips. Getting spineless politicians that need their constituents’ money more than their health to do anything resembling appropriate action is time-consuming. I just stopped being a child. I literally can say whatever I want wherever and it’s not going to instantly result in anything. If I want to say it on a forum for a game I’m passionate about in between petitioning for my human rights and working for scraps, it’s my prerogative.

Call me an attention w***e if it makes you feel any better. My therapist and I ain’t gonna give a damn, I got bigger trauma to deal with and bigger hormones to get. Ya still ain’t said nothing.

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I am trans. And please do not call me “Fella.” I go by She/Her pronouns

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I’m just saying that what the social medias reflect is far from the majority of IRL people.
Also I would agree if J.K.Rowling was really a transphobe, but I read her entire essay and I didn’t see it. People keep calling her TERF/Transphobic but they never quote precisely whatever she said to support their claim.

Anyway to stay on the subject, personally I don’t like this trend to look at a piece of entertainment as a checklist to be fulfilled. Gay character? Check. Black character? Check. Wait, where is the strong female character? Prepare your incendiary tweets and pitchforks guys. Honestly it’s becoming ridiculous.

It’s great when creators write diverse characters but it should be because they want to write them; Not the outcome of an unhealthy pressure exerted on them by an entitled crowd. When it is, the inclusion usually feels forced and lacks subtlety; which give poor quality results in terms of storytelling.

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She’s deliberately reduced people who menstruate to cisgender women only- transgender men and non-binary people also do that.

Supported the claims of someone directly critical towards trans people, putting our rights even more at risk.

And recently, linked her Twitter followers to a store containing merchandise that said “F**k your pronouns,” “Trans men are our sisters” and “Notorious transphobe.”

She’s embracing it, really. We’re not just bloody making stuff up.

I don’t have a checklist, nor does my mental sanity hinge on being represented; I run a comic about my own experiences as a trans person, I make my own representation. But again, it would be nice to see our stories told and we independent authors can only do so much. Dreamworks got She-Ra and KIPO in, Rebecca Sugar managed to push Steven Universe through CN- these shows weren’t created with checklists in mind, and they’re still wildly popular in animation nowadays with multiple queer cast members each. Games could be taking the same approach, and saying that they’d inevitably do it inorganically due to being ‘besieged by entitled crowds’ doesn’t really seem accurate. Overwatch, a game that is filled with a promise of diversity and togetherness as THE way to save the world, should be staying involved with that effort, as they mostly have been doing.

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