alright so I just read this article by Kotaku re: Zarya being headcanoned as a lesbian and I have a few thoughts:

nonlesbians need to stop bringing up this nonexistent issue of “stereotyping” when talking about butch coded characters. butch lesbians exist, and they deserve the same recognition and love that femme lesbians get (as laughably little as that may be).

Zarya is heavily coded as butch. sure, having short dyed hair or being muscular doesn’t automatically make someone a lesbian. but here’s the thing that straight people don’t seem to understand: these stereotypes exist because we use these them to mark ourselves as lesbians. 

it’s not offensive for Zarya to be a lesbian because these aren’t stereotypes projected onto us by straight people, but conventions we created to identify other lesbians.

throughout the whole article, the author doesn’t stop to examine why so many LBPQ women have been drawn to Zarya. it’s not just that she’s attractive. it’s not just that she’s a great character. it’s her coding as a butch lesbian that’s pinging all of our gaydars.

given the abysmally low survival rate of LBPQ women in media, we’re all desperate for meaningful representation. we cling to any character that we can reasonably (and sometimes unreasonably) headcanon as lesbian.

Zarya is the first character in a long, long time where I and many other fans feel like our hopes might actually become canon.