I am a gay man and main Mercy.
I was thinking about why she has such a huge gay following, and then it struck me. You get to fly around like a fairy with a magical fairy wand sprinkling fairy dust everywhere. She appeals to the gay desire to be a fairy.
I love playing her so much.
Sheâs more known for being popular with women. Symmetra is the âgayâ hero.
We gays were thriving in the Sym 2,0 era, a true queer icon.
I almost spat my coffe 
Arenât all characters gay?
I donât share this desire as a fellow gay, but she does appeal to my gay desire to do big fast zooms
I only know a couple of gay men who play Overwatch in our stack group.
Pretty sure they just play the characters they find fun, including just being a killing machine.
The bait is weak with this oneâŚ
OMG I loved Sym 2.0. part of it was she was such an underdog, people underestimated her so much but you could absolute slay on her.
Well⌠I mostly like playing Mercy and Symm.
I thought it was because I really liked TF2 medic and adore area denial characters, but I evidently learn something new about myself everyday.
Perfect timing for the family announcement with Thanksgiving right around the corner.
Itâs like gayness applied to Schrodingerâs Cat.
They exist in a quantum state of both gay and straight at the same time, until defined.
Soldier is gay right? Why is he not populair amoung gays I wonder.
Heâs so hot it feels kind of weird playing as him.
Thatâs what i was about to say. Symmetra is more of a gay icon than tracer and soldier combined.
as a straight male who mainâd mercy in OW1 iam unable to answer this question
Perhaps itâs a familiar playstyle?
Not seeing any sort of LGBT-exclusive connection here as Mercy always wasâand continues to remainâpretty popular with straight men (and a lot of women) too. Mercy is just popular with everyone, regardless of orientation, because of her beautiful character design and because she is easy to pick up and fun to play. She is also difficult to master, yet her gameplay is simultaneously fun to relax on if you donât care to min-max her potential. As a fun bonus: her calm, passive demeanor turns potentially sassy with her voicelines depending on what you do with her.
But I want to be a cryptid, so I play Moira.
Mercy? Iâm sure Symmetra is the hero you seek for that.
The gays love female characters and since she doesnât require much aiming that is another plus for the gays (cause its definitely not her bland personality LOL).
Same applies to Symmetra (2.0). Not only did she not require any aim but she was also a sassy queen that put people in their place. Gays love that.
Obviously its not true for everyone but you get the point lol
This.
As someone whoâs prob ignorable % gay but still on some other spectrum, the cause behind this is multiple based on my past observations. Her attitude, her style, her movement and her link to player prejudice. The last one is controversial but as far as I have seen is still accepted as a reason by many people.