Osa joins Rainbow Six Siege as first transgender operator

Osa will be Rainbow Six Siege’s first transgender operator when she joins the roster tomorrow.

First announced last week, she’s a two health, two speed, two difficulty character who uses a Talon-8 Clear Shield to block incoming bullets. Her gender identity was not revealed during the announcement, nor discussed during the previews of upcoming content for Season 3 of Year 6. However, GameSpot did notice a line in Osa’s bio. which mentions a “transition” and the post contacted Ubisoft for confirmation. Here’s what Ubisoft had to say:

“The decision to create a transgender character was taken very early on, as part of our initiative to have an inclusive operator list,” Ubisoft’s statement said. “The consultants, who are all trans people, wanted to make sure that Osa was presented in the most authentic and organic way possible.”

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This included hiring a queer person to write the character and a trans woman to voice it. According to the statement, Osa’s identity in the game is “certainly influenced by her gender”, but “who she is in the Siege universe centers on her talents, her influence on Nighthaven and her close friendship with Kali” .

GameSpot reports that the game makes no mention of Osa’s gender identity other than a line that mentions her transition in her bio.

“She followed her passion for creation and technology and studied electromechanics at a vocational school, then military engineering at the University of Zagreb where she excelled in robotic engineering,” reads the biography of Osa in the game. “She found herself isolated due to her unorthodox approach and the attitudes of others towards her transition, so she focused on her job.”

Osa will be joining the big Rainbow Six Siege Operator List tomorrow when the Year 6 Season 3 content goes live on the game’s test server.

To learn more about Osa, see his beginnings in the Crystal Guard unveils trailer and then look at that Two Minute Osa Gameplay Trailer. Check it out Trailer for the game’s new limited-time PvP containment event after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guidebook maker for IGN. You can follow it on Twitter @LeBlancWes.