DALLAS — A recent scientific study has found that transgender women who compete in women’s esports leagues have an unfair biological advantage in receiving online harassment.
“We found no meaningful evidence supporting the idea that transgender women have biological advantages over cisgender women while playing competitive video games,” said head researcher Dr. Melanie Parker. “Other than the fact trans women consistently exceeded everyone else in the frequency and intensity of the harassment they received. Totally blew ‘em out of the water on that one.”
Alyssa “Fantasea” Ortiz, a transgender woman who plays on the Valor-Strike: Global Overwatch team Etsy Insurrection, was unsurprised by the study’s findings. She reports receiving numerous death threats after winning Calling All Impact Changers, a women’s esports tournament.
“Everyone at Calling All Impact Changers has been kind and supportive of me, which helped me deal with the insane hate I was getting,” Ortiz said. “At first, I was really discouraged by all the strangers in my Twitter DMs telling me to go kill myself, but then I realized that I don’t get paid enough to care what people online think about me. I’m only making 77% of what I made in the men’s league before my transition.”
Brian Myers, a Valor-Strike: Global Overwatch fan whose social media posts were analyzed extensively in the study, offered his own perspective on trans women competing in women’s esports leagues.
“I normally don’t care about women in esports, but the moment I hear about a trans woman competing I get really excited to spew all of my darkest thoughts at them online,” Myers said. “A lot of people in the esports community can’t handle me protecting video games, but I got invited onto a couple truth-telling podcasts to hyperventilate about this for a few hours so that’s cool.”
At press time, Dr. Parker’s research team announced findings conclusively proving trans women would continue to compete in women’s esports leagues long after their detractors had faded into irrelevance.
