A group of transgender women was prevented from participating in an online gaming tournament for CS:GO. Precautions against male trolls keep them out.
On April 30, an ESL tournament for CS:GO was held. It was hosted by “Munich Finest Gaming” in Germany. The tournament was called “Female Open” and was accessible only to women.
Transgender women believe they do not look “female enough” in photos
A group of transgender women wanted to participate in the tournament but were denied. They received an email stating: “No men are allowed. Faking gender may result in punishment.”
The team has contacted a major US site to voice their frustration.
The Italian player feels hurt by the rejection. To the US site, Rigilio claims that she has been a gamer since she was 10 years old. Gaming has always been an important support for her. As a transgender woman, she has struggled to be accepted in the community. This changed when she met a group of transgender girls.
The rejection hits her hard now. She was on the verge of tears. She thought the team finally had the opportunity to shine, but the gaming world revealed its true face through the rejection. From her perspective, they were denied because the women in the team did not look “female” enough.
In Germany, identification determines what gender you have
This is a tricky situation. Because “Munich Finest Gaming” states: We have issues with men signing up for the tournament to troll us. If we are unsure about the gender of the people who sign up, we ask for ID. If “male” is stated on the ID, then our hands are tied.
The spokesperson for ESL supports them in this matter: This is also in accordance with German laws. The official gender of a person is determined by their ID.
Rigilio struggles with these statements. For her, gender is not determined by an ID, there is more to it. Some girls on the team have already started hormone replacement therapy, for others it is still quite new to express themselves as women. Therefore, some still need to make the effort to change their gender on their IDs.
At ESL, they seem to have an understanding of this situation. They also do not believe that the team of transgender women intended to troll them, but they have implemented a system to verify identities and are applying it now to protect the integrity of the tournament.
CS:GO is one of the online games with the largest player base. Here, societal conflicts around issues of discrimination, racism, or sexism repeatedly manifest in practice.
