If you have heard of "Overwatch," you more than likely have seen the poster girl of the game, Lena Oxton, a.k.a Tracer. She’s plastered across every box cover and is the icon that you have to click on if you want to play a Quick Play match. You essentially cannot do anything "Overwatch" related without seeing her at least once. This is why it’s such a big deal, not only to me, but to many of the other people who play the game, that she has been canonically confirmed as a queer woman.

The "Overwatch" cast has always been relatively diverse, with various playable heroes being people of color, people who have prosthetics, and even one character who is heavily implied to be on the autism spectrum. Add to the mix the first confirmed queer character of the bunch, and you have yourself an extremely interesting cast. Now, some of these factors don’t even come into play when you’re actually playing the game, but they do have an effect on the lore, which gives us a deeper insight into their lives. They are not just the heroes of "Overwatch" and agents of Talon-- they are actually extremely complex people with their own sets of beliefs and their own missions to carry out. Many of them have changed and shown progress while others have fallen right back down the rabbit hole. That is what makes them so amazing. They do not have to be heroes for us to like them. They can be screw ups, they can be outlaws, they can be brainwashed, and we can still like their characters because they’re pretty well-developed.

Now, there has always been a lot of outrage about heroes being different from what people perceive the “norm” to be, and that is extremely silly. What is normal varies from person to person, and there is no one definition of what should and should not be normal. Tracer being a queer woman is normal. Symmetra being on the autism spectrum is normal. And Tracer’s queerness is no more being shoved down the throats of people who play the game than any other canon aspect of the game. No one is going on rants about how Widowmaker being purple or Reinhardt being huge are not realistic, or how any parts of their identities are dumb or not part of the canon. A queer (specifically a lesbian) character does not affect your ability to play the game or play as that character. Tracer being queer will not make you queer, and if you are solely upset because this now takes away your ability to call her your “waifu” or a character specifically designed for the male gaze, then I am sorry, but you're going to have to deal with it. These characters were not created for the sole purpose of serving as a sexual object for those who objectify them. And if the mascot for one of the most popular games of the year being a lesbian bothers you, then perhaps you should seek another game.