Coming out to friends about any sort of sexuality or queer identity is terrifying. What if they don’t understand? What if they don’t like you anymore? One Team Fortress 2 player decided to tell his friends in a language they all understood: the game itself.
Corbin W, aka Rocketjumpingotter, took a two pronged approach to letting his friends know that he’s pansexual — that is, into people of any sex based not on physical characteristics, but rather personality traits. He made a spray of the pansexual flag and, to bring some levity to the occasion, triumphantly held up TF2‘s frying pan melee item. (Get it? It’s a pan pun.) Really though, why go through all this trouble in the first place? Why not just hop into chat and tell his friends or something like that?
“I wanted a unique way to come out to my gamer friends,” Corbin told me via email. “TF2 is my most played game at approximately 800 hours. The Frying Pan is a well-known melee weapon in the TF2 community, so I wanted a funny way to tell people.”
“I have about 6-7 [real life] friends on Steam, and 20 online friends. It mattered because I find them as much as a friend as an IRL friend.”
Happily, they all reacted positively, and their support — the kind one might receive from perhaps a team of sorts — inspired Corbin to really own his identity. “They were very supportive,” he said, “and convinced me to tell more people. I’m a lot more confident.”
Partially as a result of that, he decided to share his in-game creation on Reddit too. And while the reaction wasn’t quite as universally positive (58 per cent upvotes), it still made him feel like many members of TF2‘s handsomely silhouetted legion had his back. It felt good, he said, to have the majority of a community on his side, as opposed to what he expected from people in the Bible Belt, where he lives.
Ideally, he added, coming out shouldn’t have to be something people go through alone. Whether it’s a close friend, significant other, or video game community, having others heft a little of the weight means less of it for your shoulders.
“I’d like to add a message to all LGBT teens in the closet,” he said. “Tell someone you know that can help you come out. Having someone that can help you can make all the difference. I wouldn’t have done this without the help of my girlfriend, Skyler.”
Worth keeping in mind, definitely. Have any of you ever come out to friends in games? Or, if not that exact sort of thing, have you shared other sensitive information with them? How did they react?
Comments
15 responses to “Guy Uses Team Fortress 2 To Come Out To His Friends”
This is nice. Its always good to see these stories have a happy ending. Honesty though in regards to him being a pansexual I have never understood the need to compartmentalize every aspect of sexuality into their own little labeled category (Im looking specifically at you demisexuals and greysexuals).
Perhaps its simply because as a hetero guy Ive never felt the social anxiety of not knowing where I fit. I suppose in the end, as long as people are happy and free to be themselves it doesnt really matter does it….
In the end, it doesn’t even matter
I tried so hard to avoid that reference…….
You got so far too!
Good on him.
I think we are coming into an age where the sexuality of others isn’t a concern to most people. Yes you will always have the bigots but the majority couldn’t care less if you were straight, gay, bi, transgender, transexual, pansexual, queer, questioning, asexual, genderqueer, or any other sexual identity or lack of sexual identity.
Some people can slot themselves into a label easily, others can’t and they shouldn’t be made to feel different because they can’t answer the question “Do you like men or women” without breaking out in a sweat and feeling that those are their only 2 options. Why not both? Why not neither? Why does it matter?
As long as you are a decent person you should only be seen as just anotherone of the 7 billion human beings crawling on the planets face, lost in time, lost in space and meaning.
Sooo…wait. Is “Pan-Sexual” the new term for “Bi-Sexual”, or am I missing some deeper classification here? Either way, good for him. In my experience, even in terms of concepts not relating to sexuality, the more open and honest one gets to be amongst both family and peer group, the happier that person tends to be.
Pansexuals are interested in all genders, that is male, female, transgendered, transexual (both male to female and female to male), intersex or any of the other sexual identities. Pan coming from Ancient Greek for all or every. Pansexuals tend to live by the ideal that they are attracted to the personality, not the physical appeal “hearts not parts”.
Bisexuals are attracted to only the male and female genders
But isnt a bisexual also attracted to transexuals? Because a trans person is going to be either male or female, so a bisexual can be attracted to them.
Intersex is a biological mix of male and female, both of which bi is attracted to.
Also: what is transgender if different from transsexual?
Bisexuality generally refers to the sex they were born with. But at this stage, gender and sexuality has become so… /makes flailing arm gesture/ that you’d be excused in thinking that.
If someone identifying as bisexual was attracted to trans and intersex then they would by definition of the word be pan. I think a lot of the time bisexual is used to cover all bases simply because it is more understood and doesn’t require explanation.
I’m not attracted to trans or intersex people myself.
Transexuals transition from one gender to another, through hormones and/or surgery. Transgender is a fairly broad term for people whose identity, expression, behavior, or general sense of self doesn’t reflect the gender they were born, an example being a man attracted to a woman but is a cross-dresser. They live as the sex they identify as without having gender reassignment surgery or go on hormone replacement.
Labels are getting out of control, LGBT has had so many letters attached that it becomes a joke, often you will see LGBT+ now. I don’t see why everything needs a label, I think the best label to use is human.
Don’t forget that, while labels are set in stone, people are not. It’s best to take the ‘labeling’ with a pinch of salt as there are no uniform standards. People will identify themselves as they see fit. The confusion enters the mix when someone tries to label someone else. If anyone feels it’s necessary to ‘identify’ someone’s sexuality, just go with however that person wishes to identify themselves. That way, you can’t go wrong.
I agree, I don’t think we need to label people at all, people are who they are. Sadly some people feel more comfortable with things being labelled.
Should I make a heterosexual spray and come out to my non heterosexual friends?
How is this something that anyone still cares about. I don’t think it needen be something anyone announces at all. Ever. In any regard.
“I am a person that enjoys intercourse with other persons” the rest of the information is irrelevant to anyone not involved in said intercourse.
I had no idea there was a pan flag. I would have no idea what this guy was doing if I came across him in the game.
It is truly profound just how completely uninterested I am in who people choose to shag.
I can’t believe we’re still even talking about it. Hopefully one day we live in a world we don’t. It’s puerile and bores me witless.
Nice story, glad it worked out for him.