BlizzCon 2015:
During the World of Overwatch panel at BlizzCon 2015, Bill Petras (the Overwatch artistic director) confirmed that there would in fact be a gay character in Overwatch, and Chris Metzen confirmed that it wouldn’t just be one.
Michael Chu, Senior Game Designer on Overwatch, made the point that they wanted this to be an organic process, that they wanted to find a way for it to be revealed naturally and make it part of the unfolding story. So we know that Blizzard is aware of the diversity issue and is working to unfold it throughout the game’s process.
https://blizzardwatch.com/2015/11/07/overwatch-will-diverse-include-gay-characters/
BlizzCon 2016:
During the Overwatch Q&A panel at Blizzcon 2016, a fan said “it was revealed to us last year that one or more of the characters in the Overwatch roster are LGBT, but it was kind of forgotten for the next year or so. So I was wondering if you could tell us anything about your plans to either reveal that existing characters are queer or introduce new queer Overwatch characters.”
Chu’s reply (it begins at around 24:30 in the video above):
“We definitely haven’t forgotten about what we said. Like we said, it’s very important for us to have diversity and inclusiveness of all types and that includes LGBT characters. There are definitely LGBT heroes – that’s multiple heroes – it’s a decision that we make when we’re developing these characters early on.
We do feel strongly that we want these stories about character’s relationships – not just romantic, but familial relationships and stuff like that – come out in the course of stories that we feel really do them justice. So, because of some of the stories we’ve done so far we haven’t had a chance to shine any light on that.
But that said, I can say that we do have a story coming up soon – and that’s not ‘Blizzard™ soon,’ it’s actually soon – that will address this. And just to reiterate, it is absolutely something that’s important to us.”
http://jstationx.com/2016/11/07/overwatch-lgbt-character-reveal-blizzard/
BlizzCon 2017:
After the Overwatch ‘What’s Next’ panel at BlizzCon 2017 ended, the team began to answer fan questions. One fan asked if players can expect more LGBT heroes to be confirmed after Tracer, as “representation is super key in a game for me.”
Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu responded:
“I completely agree, representation is important to us as a team, too. In making Overwatch, making sure that it is a diverse and representative game is something that we’re always thinking about. Obviously, we showed off Tracer in the Reflections comic where it was revealed that she’s in a loving relationship with her girlfriend Emily and we are definitely interested in showing more of the character relationships.
It’s really a matter of finding the right stories because we don’t want to just come out and label people, we want them to come out naturally as part of the narrative. I’ve said it before, definitely more members of the Overwatch cast are LGBT.”
http://jstationx.com/2017/11/09/blizzard-tease-overwatch-lgbt-characters-blizzcon-2017/