Two LGBT+ games – Tell Me Why and The Last of Us Part II – tie for GLAAD Outstanding Video Game award
The Last of Us Part II / Tell Me Why. (Naughty Dog / Dontnod)
Two LGBT+ themed games have won the GLAAD media award for Outstanding Video Game this year: Tell Me Why and The Last of Us Part II.
The high-profile awards take place digitally on 8 April, but some awards have been announced in advance on Twitter ahead of the ceremony.
The two games are joint winners out of a list of ten. Also nominated are Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Bugsnax, Hades, If Found… and Ikenfell.
“This year this category was full of so many brave and bold and beautiful games that make me so excited about the future of storytelling in video games,” said Morgan Lockhart, lead writer on Tell Me Why, in her acceptance speech.
Emilia Schatz, co-lead game designer at Naughty Dog, accepted on behalf of the studio. “While the LGBTQ identity of our characters is important, it’s just one of many aspects, dimensions and even contradictions that make a character feel more human, more like us,” she said.
https://twitter.com/glaad/status/1379829805613453312?s=20
The Last of Us Part II features a lesbian in the lead role as well as a trans character, while Tell Me Why was lauded as the first AAA game to feature a lead trans character.
This isn’t the first time GLAAD have given out awards as a tie. Just last year, both The Bravest Knight and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series won the award for Outstanding Kids & Family Programming.
In 2013, both Adam Lambert and Frank Ocean jointly won the award for Outstanding Music Artist.
The Last of Us Part II has won plenty of awards since its release and was recently nominated for a record-breaking 13 awards at the BAFTA Game Awards. It went on to win three, including the public voted EE Game of the Year.
It was also nominated for Game Beyond Entertainment, an award that recognises the cultural impact of a game, alongside Tell Me Why.
BAFTA host Elle Osili-Wood praised the awards for recognising the diversity of the games industry.
Tell Me Why also won multiple awards at the Gayming Magazine awards, including Best Character for trans protagonist Tyler.
You can watch the GLAAD Awards live tonight (8 April) on YouTube and Hulu, details here.
