Queer black furry SonicFox is the first-ever Outsports Non-Binary Person of the Year
SonicFox at Community Effort Orlando (CEO) 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Joao Ferreira/ESPAT Media/Getty Images)
Queer black furry e-sports champion SonicFox has been named the first-ever Non-Binary Person of the Year by Outsports.
The gamer, real name Dominique McLean, is the first person to win the new Outsports category and is also the first person from e-sports to win one of Outsports’ LGBT+ sports awards.
SonicFox is sponsored by Echo Fox, and they came out as gay in August 2018 – by tweeting “I’m gay” minutes after winning a world champion gaming title.
im gay
also the best dbfz player on this fucking planet dont forget it.
— SonicFox (@SonicFox) August 6, 2018
In an interview with Outsports about their award, SonicFox said that being out and proud is their way of fighting the “haters”.
“Honestly, you’re going to have to really stand up against these guys,” they said.
“We just got to show that we’re everywhere, so that they won’t be able to deny us, or who we are, because of who we love or what we like. I’m a true believer that everyone should be whatever they want to be.
“I hope that my influence over the next couple of years will help people.”
The runners-up for the category SonicFox won included roller derby competitor Juniper Simonis of Oregon and All-American shotput athlete Clay Conley of Swarthmore College.
SonicFox raised thousands of dollars for LGBT+ youth last summer, by playing a 72-hour game of Mortal Kombat.
The five-time Evolution Championship Series champion staged a three-day Twitch livestream to raise funds for The Trevor Project.
Fans donated more than $22,000 over the course of the three-day livestream, as they played through the story modes of Mortal Kombat 9, 10 and 11, as well as Injustice 1 and 2.
Key donation thresholds saw SonicFox writing messages like “trans rights” on their chest, before shaving their moustache after smashing the $20,000 donations barrier.
SonicFox said that their stream was partly inspired by Harry Brewis (Hbomberguy), a YouTuber who raised a total of $347,000 for transgender children’s charity Mermaids by playing Donkey Kong 64 for three days straight.
The Donkey Kong stream was inspired when Mermaids had part of its lottery funding suspended after a campaign from anti-trans activists. The funding was subsequently restored.
In September 2019, SonicFox came out as non-binary and clarified that their pronouns are they/them aside from for close friends.
Also to clarify on my pronouns, I am alright with most of my close friends to use he or they, but I’ve been specifically letting the FGC only use they/them. It isn’t as normalized in that environment, and am trying to change that in this space! It’s been working well!!!— SonicFox (@SonicFox) September 13, 2019
SonicFox started gaming wearing a costume with a furry blue head that they said cost them over $1,000 to make, and signalled to fans and followers that they are a furry.
“It’s sort of empowerment, putting it on,” McLean told Outsports in an interview earlier this year.
