This eSports player used his coming out to call out “rampant” queerphobia in the gaming community
Vincent Wang, a 25-year-old Chinese-Canadian eSports competitor, recently came out as gay, using his announcement to call out homophobia and sexism in the gaming industry and eSports community.Wang — who plays League of Legends under the screen name “Biofrost” for the team Dignitas — wrote via Twitter, “I’ve struggled with my personal identity my entire life….
At the age of 8, I was bombarded with homophobic and sexist remarks at home, and whenever I did something that wasn’t ‘manly,’ I was told ‘Why are you acting like a girl?’ and to stop being ‘gay.’ I was hyper-conscious of how I should act and tried not to act or sound ‘gay’, but I was still constantly bullied at school for it.”Related: These 5 hot, gay video game heroes are heating up our consoles“Working in the video game industry hasn’t helped matters either,” Wang continued. “On almost every team I’ve been on, I’ve heard homophobic comments from either my teammates or the staff and felt uncomfortable, even borderline afraid of possibly losing my job if I told the truth….
My story is not unique. The gaming industry is rampant with sexism, prejudice, and homophobia.”Wang is unfortunately correct.
A 2020 study found that 73 percent of LGBTQ gamers experienced queerphobia online while gaming, especially if they were out.
