Two days ahead of the start of Pride month, Blizzard has canonically confirmed that two more members of the Overwatch 2 roster are also a part of the LGBTQ+ community—and that confirmation has been a long time coming for some.
The new digital short story “As You Are,” which was released today on the official Overwatch website, revealed that Pharah identifies as a lesbian, while Baptiste is bisexual.
While this is the first confirmation of those heroes’ sexuality, this isn’t the first time fans have wondered about the sexuality of any specific hero in the game. Most recently, speculation about Baptiste’s sexuality surfaced following the release of Lifeweaver last month at the start of season four.
Lifeweaver was introduced to the game as Overwatch’s first openly pansexual character, and in pre-match dialogue between Lifeweaver and Baptiste, the Haitian mercenary is receptive to Lifeweaver’s flirtatious advances. The dialogue includes Lifeweaver saying that he has dinner reservations for a nice restaurant and needs someone to go with him. The dialogue that follows indicates that the two might have a mutual interest in one another.
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Meanwhile, long-time Overwatch players will be familiar with the Pharmercy duo for more than just Pharah and Mercy’s gameplay synergy. The ship is almost as old as Overwatch itself, and “As You Are” also includes a reference to the pair’s relationship in the game’s lore, with Pharah seeming to have plenty to mull over when it comes to the winged healer.
The new short story comes just two days before Overwatch 2’s pride celebration, which Blizzard announced today will include a wide array of free LGBTQ+ cosmetic options to all players that log into Overwatch 2, as well as some merchandising. Blizzard states in their blog post that the net proceeds from their Pride merchandise will go to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
In total, Overwatch 2 will have 15 different sexuality-related player icons and 24 player name cards. Pharah, Baptiste, Soldier: 76, Lifeweaver, and Tracer each have two name cards. The character cards feature their silhouettes, and one has a general pride theme while the other has a more sexuality-specific pride color theme.
