Who is LGBTQ in Mario?
Text in the first edition manual for the North American release of Super Mario Bros. Birdo would rather be called ‘Birdetta’ and he thinks he is a girl. Due to this, she is widely considered to be one of the first transgender characters in video games. Perhaps the most well known story of LGBTQ+ representation in the Mario universe is Birdo, a pink creature with a bow. First appearing in Super Mario Bros 2 on the NES with the name Ostro as a pink egg-spewing mini boss, the game’s US manual stated “he thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth”.The game’s manual described Birdo as a character who liked to dress as a girl, and preferred to be called Birdetta. While the character of Birdo is now fully embraced as female (and with her original name), many queer gamers still hold her up as a trans icon.Beginnings of Birdo While Yoshi’s, and especially Birdo’s, gender identity was never explored in the canon (Nintendo’s lore), she’s still cemented herself as a trans legend.