VIDEO GAY-MER | A short list of trans characters in video games.

From Birdo to Crem, trans characters do exist in games.

Trans visibility in video games is so not-talked about. People toot their own horns about having queer characters in their games, but I can count on my hand how many well-known trans characters I've actually seen in gaming. It's a travesty! Gays and lesbians, while they do not have a lot of characters, at least have a good and growing amount. It's even the same for bisexuals (even though half the time they never actually say they're bisexuals).

So, what's the deal with trans characters in gaming? Are they just never going to have characters? Well, no, they do have a very small few. And honestly, except for a few examples, these characters are either inconsequential, villains, or played off as some sort of joke. It's hard, especially when you're part of a community that mostly consists of cis, straight, men who really don't like the diversity. (Hello, gamergate, anyone?)

Still, trans characters do exist - and I think they deserve to be showcased somewhere. And I'm only sticking to characters that I know are trans. So, characters that are genderless or androgynous characters are out of the running. If you know any other characters, please tell me as I'd love to keep updating list. To show the good and the bad, so we can see what works and what really, really, really needs to stop:

Birdo - Super Mario Bros. 2

Here's the deal with Birdo - most people can't really decide what they want her gender to be. Originally, she was originally named Ostro and her description said, "He thinks he's a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth," according to the Super Mario Bros. 2 handbook. And eventually, all mentions of Birdo's "gender confusion" was erased from the game. Still, characters in later series would mention how it was strange that Birdo had a male body. Oh, and she is also Yoshi's girlfriend in some games.

I don't know how to feel about Birdo. Part of me definitely feels like Ostro was originally supposed to be a joke - and in that game you did kill her. So, while that's not ideal, Birdo did appear in later series as a not-so-negative character. So, there you have it? I guess?

While it's not the best - Birdo is technically the first trans character in gaming. So, much like Vivian in Moonmist - she has to count for something right?

Poison - Final Fight

Poison is another character that is definitely controversial. Poison wasn't originally intended to be a trans character - she was supposed to be a female character. But, the developers didn't think it would look right to hit a woman - so instead they decided to make her trans? It's a really gross sentiment, and I don't like it at all. However, American gamers didn't see her initially, because she was later replaced by two male characters: Billy and Sid.

However, later appearances that Poison made seem to be much more forgiving. The character was definitely trans - but the language around her identity was still really gross. Yoshinori Ono, a producer of Street Fighter IV, said, "Let's set the record straight: in North America, Poison is officially post-op transgender. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female." And it just bothers me.

So, while Poison has been confirmed as being trans by the producers of the games she's appeared in - I don't feel like that's an incredibly good thing? Although, I have also never seen her in action? Perhaps her character in game is a lot better than the way she's talked about outside of the game.

Krem - Dragon Age: Inquisition

Krem! Kre-e-e-e-e-em! Krem is so unapologetically trans that I was just over the moon when I saw him. BioWare are rock stars in the queer world, and they're doing their best to do be as diverse as possible - and despite how terrible Andromeda was - I think they're doing a good job. Krem is the only trans character I've ever seen in a major video game (or any video game for that matter) that really went the extra mile.

Not only did Krem have a backstory, but he was given an amazing group of people that supported him. That's so important for trans people. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times, positive representations of LGBTQ+ people are so important. They impact people's lives in ways you cannot imagine. That's what makes Krem and the rest of Dragon Age so important.

So, that's all I have for now. Most other characters that I read about were either never stated outwardly as trans, or they were considered genderless. However, I am an imperfect human being and I would love to be proven wrong. So, if you have any more trans characters anywhere - I'd love to see them and add them to this list!

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Gaming

VIDEO GAY-MER | Creating An Experience All Your Own

In a world where queer people don't have experiences of our own, we have to create new ones.

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Games are an escape.

Games are an escape from your struggles, whether they be personal struggles or the terrors of the world, they allow us to take a step away and focus on a reality that isn't our own. And as a queer kid growing up in the Southern United States, I retreated to video games for most of my young life. And I've spoken in length in many other articles about how, despite my love for video games, the lack queerness has soured me to them a lot of the time.

Instead of giving you yet another example of the lack of representation present in games, I'm going to talk about a very specific aspect of queer gaming culture. It revolves around a very specific part to a lot of games across many genres: Character creation. We've all done it - whether you've created a Mii or played through Dark Souls III, you've most likely created a character of your very own. Often times, these characters have little to no real back story and are largely designed to be a catalyst for the player.

So, why is this important to queer gamers?

Because these characters can be whatever we queer gamers want them to be. A major, more recent example is that of the Sole Survivor of Fallout 4. After the game came out, I saw a large amount of different players across the internet posting their OCs. They gave them very specific storylines, and a lot of them were queer. They had entire lives not spoken about in the base game. Some of them three the base game out entirely.

The same thing happens across many different games from Dragon Age: Inquisition to Terraria to Sims (on a grander scale). We have to work harder to build a world in which we can escape to - so we project ourselves onto characters that we are allowed to create. For instance, my characters are always good natured gay men, who become heroes in a world that previously didn't accept them.

In Fallout 4, this was the reason I was drawn to the Minutemen and the Railroad. Unlike the Institute and the Brotherhood, the other factions were underdogs. The Minutemen, a militia of the Commonwealth dedicated to the people, starts out the game barely existing and disgraced after what happened in a town called Quincy. The Railroad, a band of ragtag fighters seeking to free the much feared Synths (synthetic humans) from their tyrannical creators.

My character fit so well into these groups, because I wanted to create a queer character that fought for people who got shat on all the time. It wasn't what the game intended, obviously, but one of the very few good things about Fallout 4 was that it didn't matter. You could make your character do ALMOST whatever you wanted (so long as it stayed in their very specific factions, but that's neither here nor there).

Not only could I, a queer person, be a hero to an entire group - but to an entire society. In this game, my character makes history and changes the world for the better. This cathartic experience is one of the reasons I still play Fallout 4 to this day. I do the same thing with Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect, etc. There's something so powerful about being able to look at this queer character that you, a queer person, created and saying, "You're a hero to all the people in this world."

That level of freedom is so important to a queer audience, because we're so used to hearing straight people tell us that things have to be a certain way. That's why more linear games can often leave a queer gamer bored or annoyed, because we're forced to sit through this character living out another straight fantasy that we always see. Does this mean we hate these games? No, of course not. I love Final Fantasy X as much as the next guy, but it's romance bores me to tears.

When I escape, I don't want to escape into a straight person's fantasy romance or a straight man's power fantasy. If game developers won't give me my own characters, then let me play the games where I can create my own fantasy. Let me make the Inquisitor a gay Elf; Let the Sole Survivor be a queer secret-Synth who has a harem with literally every romanceable companion because they all fell in love along the way; Let ALL OF MY SIMS GET GAY MARRIED!

Sure, it's not the same as giving me real characters, but it's something to keep me going until I get to play next great queer game. So, I guess I'll take it.

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