Sega’s side-scrolling fighting game Streets of Rage 3 arrived in 1994, with its hilariously flamboyant boss character Ash. Other notable video game characters from around that time include another transgender woman who appeared in Circuit’s Edge (1989) and a gay librarian in Dracula Unleashed, a live-action video game from 1993. In Birdo’s later appearances, any hint of being transgender was removed and either replaced with “indeterminate gender” or simply left to the player’s imagination. You probably wouldn’t know her as transgender: In the original game manual, she’s described thus: “He thinks he’s a girl He’d rather be called Birdetta.” That’s striking on a number of levels, not least of which is that it came from Nintendo, a company still conservative in its references to gender and sexuality. 2 (1988)-is still around today in the multiplayer rosters for Mario Kart and Mario Party.
It’s hardly a starring role-and the girlfriend in question is marrying a man-but she’s widely recognized as the first gay character.Īlthough Moonmist came first, Birdo-a pink, red-ribbon-wearing dinosaur from Super Mario Bros.
In the 1986 computer game Moonmist, a woman is seen to be angry with her girlfriend. But it took another decade for gay characters to begin appearing in video games. The video game industry started coming into focus in the early 1970s-almost parallel to the LGBT rights movement-following the success of basic tennis game Pong. If the scrollable image above doesn’t work with your browser, open the entire image here. We are getting to a place where we can say that there are relatable and realistic gay characters young gamers can be inspired by.īut LGBT characters have been around almost as long as video games themselves-hidden in plain sight-and they’ve become some of the most beloved, enduring characters around. Modern game titles now have more people who exist outside traditional gender and sexual orientations, represented more broadly and accurately. The company claimed that future version of the game will be “ more inclusive.” There are also upcoming indie games like Ultimate Gay Fighter, billed as the world’s first gay video game, and a new documentary, Gaming in Color, devoted to the movement.
Just last week, Nintendo issued a public apology for failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life, a new life simulator that lets users customize everything about their characters except the sex of their significant others. There’s a swelling movement for greater diversity and LGBT representation in video games that’s about to reach a national tipping point. The fight for gay rights isn’t limited to real-world spaces.
Note: This article contains minor spoilers for the following video games: Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy XII, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Resident Evil: Dead Aim, and The Last of Us.