Twitch has finally added diversity tags, including a transgender one, after users made it loud and clear the platform desperately needed more ways for streamers to identify themselves and for viewers to find them.
UPDATE May 26, 2021: Just five days after initially announcing the addition of more inclusive tags, Twitch has officially rolled out a slew of LGBTQIA+ and race diversity stream tags, category tags, and automatic tags for its users.
Streamers can check out the full list of available tags on Twitch’s blog post.
📢 The new tags are now available. Read the full list here, https://t.co/STA6TmLqdT https://t.co/X0Oq5BxTQs
— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) May 26, 2021
Original story begins as follows:
Twitch streamers and viewers have been rallying for a new tag on the platform specifically for its transgender broadcasters for a long time now, to the point where a group of protesters gathered outside the company’s headquarters to make their voices heard.
It’s an issue that has been close to the hearts of many streamers in the trans community, who felt like they needed better representation on the platform.
Fortunately, it seems like all the hard work has finally paid off. Twitch announced that 350+ new tags, including a transgender one, are coming very soon.
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We’ll have tags related to gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ability, mental health, and more.
For the full details, check out the blog: https://t.co/dXLPrlayPX
— Twitch (@Twitch) May 22, 2021
“Next week, streamers will be able to select from over 350 new tags related to gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ability, mental health, and more. The list of tags includes transgender, Black, disabled, veteran, and Vtuber, among many others.
“We will also remove references to ‘ally’ from the LGBTQIA+ tag, and are instead creating a standalone ally tag. These additions won’t change how tagging works and are completely optional. They simply give creators more choices.
“We’d like to thank our trans community for originally requesting the “transgender” tag, and for their passion and persistence in pursuit of that request. This has been one of the most popular requests we’ve heard, and the simple truth is that we should have done this sooner.”
Twitch added an LGBTQIA+ tag back in 2018. However, they admitted it took them “too long to embrace that there should have been hundreds of ways for creators to share who they are and issues they care about.”
After all, the Twitch community is incredibly diverse, and “the tags should reflect and celebrate that.”
It took them a while to listen, but now they finally have, and it’s a massive win for everyone involved. They’ll go live in late May.
