Blizzard confirms Baptiste and Pharah as LGBTQ+ Overwatch 2 heroes

Blizzard has narratively announced that Baptiste and Pharah are two new LGBTQ+ members of the Overwatch 2 roster two days before the start of Pride month.

On June 1, Overwatch 2’s inaugural Pride celebration will begin, bringing with it free cosmetics and modifications to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.  The Pride celebration also brings a range of fresh name cards and player symbols for players to display their identity.

In addition, Pride will take over the Midtown map of Overwatch 2, which has been upgraded with a number of ornamental banners and rainbow-colored crosswalks. In a short story published as part of the Pride celebration, the rocket-firing hero Pharah tells Baptiste, who recently joined the Overwatch squad after defecting from the terrorist organization Talon, that she is a lesbian.

Pharah’s coming out as a lesbian would undoubtedly add more fuel to the fan-made wildfire that suggests Pharah and Mercy are dating. Baptiste’s sexuality isn’t explicitly stated in the storyline, although it is hinted that he at least finds guys attractive. Baptiste’s bisexuality, however, had already become somewhat of an open secret ever since a flirtatious interaction between Baptiste and Lifeweaver was released.

Blizzard’s right step toward gender diverse  

Even though it’s wonderful to see Overwatch 2 celebrate Pride Month after seven years and include a few more diverse heroes, it’s reasonable for fans to wonder if this representation is sufficient to support the LGBTQ+ community. For a remarkably long time, former LGBTQ Heroes like Tracer and Soldier 76 received little to no attention, and even with the two new addition, the current Overwatch 2 roster appears to have merely scratched the surface of the potential diversity it can explore.

Both Tracer and Soldier: 76’s sexual orientations were first revealed in comic books, but other than Tracer’s meaningless spray that featured her partner, neither character’s sexual orientation was even mentioned in the game. Downplaying or outright divulging a hero’s sexual orientation has a number of drawbacks as well, but it seems that the current upsurge in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has compelled Blizzard to expand the LGBTQ+ roster in the game and promote its diversity and pride.

This suggests that Blizzard may introduce additional LGBTQ+ characters as well, including transmen and transwomen, non-binary people, those who identify as asexual, and others. Moreover, Blizzard is introducing a line of Pride-themed merchandise outside of the game at the Blizzard Gear Store, which has been selected by the company’s LGBT+ employee network. The National Center for Transgender Equality(NCTE) will get the net sales from any purchase from May 16 through June 30.

Header: Activision Blizzard