What it\u2019s like to be a trans streamer on Twitch MSTRSSFOX \/ Elle Rows \/ Miabyte \/ DexertoStreamer Miabyte recently highlighted an issue that people from the trans community are facing as they attempt to grow their channel on Twitch. Following her request for the trans tag on Twitter, I spoke with Mia and fellow trans streamers MSTRSSFOX and Monica Rose \u2013 also known online as Elle Rows \u2013 who told me why this tag is so important as they shared their experiences of streaming on the platform. [jwplayer MXPBdWT1] As a trans woman and streamer, I know that starting a channel on Twitch and growing an audience takes dedication, time, and an incredibly thick skin. Opening yourself up to scrutiny is daunting, and it can put many people off, but for those creators with thousands of followers, building a vibrant community of fans is a very rewarding experience. However, for trans streamers such as myself, it is much harder to grow an audience, and we can often go unnoticed. It doesn\u2019t help that Twitch\u2019s umbrella tag places LGBTQIA+ people together in one space \u2014 making it difficult for trans individuals to find one another \u2014 with the tag being largely dominated by the drag and gay scene. Why Twitch needs a trans tag Miabyte is one streamer who has been able to build a community. With 21,000 followers, she is a Twitch Partner, but she wants to make it easier for other trans streamers to enjoy such success. Currently, there is no way for trans people to be separately visible on the platform, and while the inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ tag is necessary, finding a trans person can be incredibly difficult \u2013 especially as allies of the community often use it as a way to show that they are welcoming of the community. She isn\u2019t the only one campaigning for change, with fellow streamer MSTRSSFOX drawing attention to the issue by promoting the hashtag #transtagwhen. Trans Latinx streamer and founder of Twitch Team Transmission Gaming, Nikatine, has also spoken out, while the tag has been requested over on the Twitch UserVoice section, with over 5,000 people backing it. \u201cWe don\u2019t belong in the Twitch space yet, and that\u2019s what the trans community wants, to feel like they belong.\u201d \u2013 MSTRSSFOX MSTRSSFOX told us why it is so important: \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of visibility, for the most part,\u201d she said. \u201cYou want to have a fair chance of being seen, and being part of a marginalized community makes it hard, but being trans makes it even harder.\u201d Elle believes that the tag would allow the community to support one another, especially with the pandemic preventing many people from spending time with their friends and family. \u201cI wish I had someone to talk to, to get the guidance, tell me what my first steps were, especially with medical and legal transitioning. I had to go through a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to start my transition. I didn\u2019t know where to begin or what to do next. I wanted that support and community. I don\u2019t want other people to live that feeling of being alone.\u201d She poses the idea of the tag being an opt-in feature, something that she believes will allow streamers the control over whether or not they want to be discoverable. Fox adds that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of trolls, and they are very hateful and hurtful. I think it\u2019s not anything worse than what trans people see daily in real life, but people feel like they can say, and get away with more hurtful things within the internet space when consequences are less prevalent.\u201d In the past, Twitch had the Communities feature, with sections that were user-created that gave trans people that visibility they now crave. For Miabyte, the creation of this tag is a solution to a problem that was specifically brought about by the platform themselves. \u201cThey worked much in the same way [that] tags do now\u2026 I streamed under the Trans community and found many friends doing so, [and] being very early in transition it was invaluable to me to find people like myself on the platform I could learn from and confide in.\u201d The Communities feature was eventually replaced in 2018, and tags are now much more limited in scope. Some people have responded to this request by asking why there isn\u2019t a straight tag, but this is about allowing trans people to find others easily. As Fox states, \u201cIf Twitch claims to champion diversity and inclusivity like they say they do, it needs to bring a tag in to do that and allow us to grow.\u201d While Twitch champions and promotes events such as Pride month and Black History month, Mia believes that they need to do more. \u201cOutside of those times where Twitch can capitalize on being seen as progressive, it seldom seems like they want to make actionable changes to further promote diverse streamers.\u201d She added: \u201cAs progressive as Twitch likes to seem, for me; actions speak louder than words.\u201d Twitch responds during December\u2019s Town Hall On 16 December 2020, Twitch held a Town Hall, where it was explained why the tag hasn\u2019t been made available. They said that they are trying to avoid trans individuals receiving more negativity and hate on the platform, but as many people from the trans community pointed out, this stance went directly against what the community is requesting. Writing on the UserVoice section, ohthatnatalie said: \u201cYour excuse of \u201cit would invite harassment\u201d is quite frankly pathetic. If you cared about harassment on your platform, you would moderate your own chat during large events, and would take steps to ensure the creators that you feature as PogChamp, or on the front page are protected from racists and bigots. The trans community WANTS this tag.\u201d Fox believes that Twitch seems to imply that not adding the tag saves trans people from targeted harassment, but this directly contradicts the LGBTQIA+ tag that already exists. What is it like being a trans streamer on Twitch? My own personal experience on Twitch (and YouTube) has been extremely positive, which mainly comes down to the privilege that I receive as a white trans woman who can \u2018pass\u2019. To those who are unaware, the idea of passing is something that\u2019s incredibly outdated, painting us as individuals who are trying to \u2018hide\u2019 something about ourselves and to \u2018lie\u2019 about who we are. What it actually means is to be able to move through life without the fear of being outed as trans because of the way that you look, which in itself is problematic that it\u2019s even something that is expected of a trans person. Incredibly unfair and unjust, unfortunately, the wider community seems to accept trans people when they look a certain way that fits in with their ideals. I don\u2019t fear my own safety by venturing outside of my house or starting up a livestream because of this, and so my experience is only one side of the coin when it comes to what streaming is actually like. In fact, I\u2019ve received very few negative reactions during the time that I streamed on Twitch and uploaded to YouTube. People were overwhelmingly open, and I had trans folk that were just starting out in their transition coming into the chat to feel a sense of community, as well as allies who wanted to hear my story. But this is an incredibly rare experience \u2013 even finding a trans person through the tag is hard to do, and it\u2019s often only through Twitter, personal connections, and other sites that we are able to do so. MSTRSSFOX Starting her Twitch channel in the summer of 2019, non-binary trans woman MSTRSSFOX has risen to 2.3k followers on Twitch in less than two years. Focusing predominantly on Dead by Daylight \u2014 a game that is incredibly popular within the LGBTQIA+ scene \u2014 Fox often collaborates with Twitch Team \u2018Stream Queens\u2018, one of the most well known Twitch Teams out there that\u2019s helmed by drag streamer Deere, who most recently was used as the POGChamp emote. Most recently, Fox hosted a panel on the Stream Queens channel featuring Peppermint of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race fame, in which they discussed the place of trans women within the drag scene. For Fox, being a trans streamer allows her to find like-minded members of the LGBTQIA+ scene, something that is otherwise usually confined to meeting at Pride events or bars. However, with bars closed and events not currently taking place, she has pointed out that it feels as if \u201cpeople are in their own confined, separate spaces.\u201d Gaming does enable her to connect, though. \u201cPlaying video games and having a space where other people are doing the same thing makes it easier to feel like you belong,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have a community, but there\u2019s a lot of trolls.\u201d She longs for the sense of community that the prior Twitch trans Community allowed, stating that \u201cit was a great, safe space to connect within, but we\u2019ve all lost touch since this has been removed, and it\u2019ll be fantastic when we\u2019re finally all able to reconnect.\u201d Elle Rows Starting streaming just over 19 months ago, Elle \u2013 who resides in Toronto, Canada \u2013 reached her affiliate target on Twitch after only a week. With a background in special fx makeup and hair, she came over to Twitch from a YouTube channel that was made prior to her transition. She started her streaming journey by not being \u2018out\u2019, and didn\u2019t use the LGBTQIA+ tag, either. She just had a love of gaming that she wanted to share with the world. While occasionally feeling as if she received comments that attempted to \u2018out\u2019 her as trans, this never affected her negatively or made her feel personally unsafe. Later into her streaming career in May 2020, she decided to share with her viewers that she is, indeed, trans, through a TwitLonger post. The topic began to arise through her streaming much more than she was comfortable talking about it \u2013 it\u2019s something she never kept a secret, but felt like it held little relevance to her Twitch channel and gaming. Elle is extremely passionate about live streaming, believing that \u201cstreaming makes games and hanging out so much more immersive and safer in this new normal. I get to do what I love, and add value to other people\u2019s days at the same time \u2013 and that is so rewarding. I couldn\u2019t ask for a better part-time job.\u201d Miabyte 31-year-old Mia is a full-time Partnered streamer. Streaming a variety of content from Final Fantasy through to Kingdom Hearts and Genshin Impact, she started her channel back in 2016 when she had recently begun transitioning. With Twitch, she saw an opportunity to game, make friends, find a sense of community, and acceptance. Passionate about gaming since a child, when she would play on her father\u2019s Atari 7800 and NES, these consoles and games allowed her to escape from her life as a trans individual. Mia always wanted to be able to create more spaces online that were accepting within the gaming sphere. \u201cIt\u2019s a place where I am unashamedly myself, and thankfully people find that entertaining. The only thing that\u2019s important to me is that I try to make people\u2019s days a little bit better.\u201d On her personal experience, she believes that \u201cit does sometimes feel like being a trans streamer on Twitch is essentially playing on hard mode.\u201d She added: The unfortunate reality is that a large majority of the audience that uses Twitch aren\u2019t necessarily looking to follow trans streamers. The same experience can probably be said of any member of a marginalized group attempting to make a name for themselves.\u201d Growing any channel on Twitch will of course bring about a certain amount of hate \u2013 that\u2019s not specific to trans individuals only. But, that doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s any less damaging, and with the absence of the tag, streamers can be left alone. \u201cI myself have dealt with trolls pretty much consistently during my time on Twitch\u2026 the type of targeted transphobia I and my friends have had to deal with has been extremely damaging to me in the past.\u201d Attempting to ask for promotion seemed to land on deaf ears with Twitch. \u201cI fought for a two-hour \u2018front page spot\u2019 over the course of a year\u2026 and eventually when that chance finally came, my two-hour slot was bumped down to 10 minutes.\u201d The only other response that Twitch gave her was that she could \u201capply again in six months\u2019 time.\u201d This has left her feeling incredibly disheartened, as she believes that the only reason she received this opportunity in the first place was due to her expressing that she felt \u201cundervalued as a creator by Twitch.\u201d While being a trans streamer can often feel like playing Twitch on hard-mode, these three fantastic trans people highlight a community of passionate men, women, and non-binary folk that have incredible talent to share with the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What it\u2019s like to be a trans streamer on Twitch MSTRSSFOX \/ Elle Rows \/ Miabyte \/ DexertoStreamer Miabyte recently highlighted an issue that people from the trans community are facing as they attempt to grow their channel on Twitch. Following her request for the trans tag on Twitter, I spoke with Mia and fellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}