BBC News NI report on 'Northern Ireland's first transgender athlete', 2022
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Tears of joy for the Commonwealth Esports gold
00:07 medalist.
00:08 As the first transgender woman to represent Northern Ireland,
00:12 it's been a proud and often difficult journey for Emma Rose.
00:16 I've suffered with depression for most of my life.
00:19 Gaming has always been my escape to the outside world and stuff
00:23 like that.
00:24 So before I came out as trans, I would have just
00:27 spent most of my time playing games,
00:29 just to avoid conflicts and stuff in the real world.
00:32 So gaming for me, it literally saved my life.
00:34 Like from depression, it was just that mental reset
00:36 and let me go again to the next day.
00:39 Ball still alive, and it's another chance.
00:44 Emma says competing in esports as a woman
00:48 isn't easy due to the amount of online abuse.
00:52 It's either you're a woman, you can't do this,
00:54 you suck because you're a girl, or you
00:57 suck because why are you playing this game, why not
00:59 in the kitchen, all those stupid jokes.
01:02 And then being trans on top of that is even the opposite.
01:04 Then they flip it, be like, oh, you're just a catfish,
01:06 you're just a troll, you're just a dude wearing makeup,
01:09 and you're just all sort of homophobic slags and stuff.
01:12 So it's pretty tough.
01:14 It's pretty toxic.
01:15 But with more champions coming forward every day,
01:18 eventually it'll level out.
01:20 And it'll be-- at the minute, there's
01:22 the whole stigma that esports is a boys club for people
01:25 in their parents' basements in a dark, sweaty room.
01:27 It's not at all.
01:28 It's a multi-billion dollar industry
01:30 with endless potential.
01:32 And with her new platform, she'll
01:34 try and raise the profile of esports
01:36 and break down barriers at the same time.
01:39 An incredible victory.
01:41 Seeing someone like me, especially
01:42 from here in Northern Ireland, where being transgender
01:45 is still an iffy topic for a lot of people,
01:48 I think it's a good step in the right direction
01:50 to try and bring out the inclusion, diversity, equality.
01:55 I think that's important for me to try and inspire
01:58 the current generation, the next generation, even
02:00 the past generation, that if someone's not accepting
02:03 themselves because they're too afraid of what the outcomes are
02:06 going to be outside of it, if I can do it,
02:08 then why can they not do it?