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Video Games Are Utterly Failing Trans Gamers & It’s Time We Did Something About It

A few weeks ago, a transphobic slur by Metroid developer Hirofumi Matsuoka was confused for Word of God evidence that Samus Aran was canonically trans. The slur horrified me, but what stuck with me was the reaction to the idea that an incredibly visible, well-known character—arguably one of the most recognizable heroines in video games—was trans. The celebration was raucous; the joy was palpable. And a few days later it was over, replaced by the deadened “we should have known better” malaise of a community that’s been done wrong too many times to count.

See, trans gamers don’t get much. I don’t mean in the intellectual sense, I mean in the pop-culture-representation-slash-real-world-visualization-and-support-slash-basic-human-rights sense. This is a general problem for trans people on the whole. Things are slowly beginning to change; in May, Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time. Siri has been programmed to correct any user who misgenders Caitlyn Jenner. Recently, the world began to take notice of Angel Haze, an immensely talented agender rapper. As the rights of and difficulties faced by trans people are promoted by music and television, many people take heart in finding communities full of people like them, who can support them and help them endure the immense hardships trans people face in Western society.

In many ways, video games trail behind music and television in terms of trans representation and intra-community protection. Many gamers completely lost their gumballs—in a bad way—when they learned the cast of Dragon Age: Inquisition would include a trans man.

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Please please please please read this.