Rainbow Six Siege is about to get a new trans operator

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’s newest season, Operation Deep Freeze, is about to release and with it comes a new Portuguese operator: Tubarão. A note in Tubarão’s in-game biography shows that he has been written to be a trans man.

Quoting from his in-game biography: “Every man’s different. Tubs is trans, so he had to fight twice as hard for his spot. You can’t break him. You just have to let him do his thing.”

Tubarão joins a growing list of Rainbow Six Siege characters who have been written as, or confirmed afterwards, to be LGBTQIA+. Pulse was confirmed to have been written as a bi man by his writer after the fact. This is shown when aiding an injured ally back to their feet, as it sounds like Pulse is flirting with the operator. It was heavily suggested in a Ghost Recon: Wildlands crossover called Operation Archangel that female operators Caveria and Twitch were in a romantic relationship. Since then, an in-game charm has been released with Caveria’s “real” name Tania, and another woman’s name engraved on the back of a leather talisman.

In more recent times however, Operators have been confirmed in their in-game bio, with references to Flores and his husband, Osa’s professional hardships with her transition, and the use of only they/them/their pronouns in Sens’ bio confirming them to be non-binary.

While this has no bearing on gameplay, it is nice to see representation of the queer community and for it to be done upfront rather than retroactively. While it is odd for a first-person shooter to have a character written, let alone multiple, to be in the LGBTQIA+ community, it is welcome, nonetheless.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, And PlayStation 4 and 5.