The Voice of 'Halo' Says Trans Rights

A Halo fan asked Jeff Steitzer, the voice of Halo multiplayer, to say "trans rights" on Cameo. Before Steitzer did that, he had a few more words of encouragement for that fan, and trans people around the world.

Tanis Celeste, a trans lesbian and self described "furry disaster," told Waypoint she's been playing Halo since at least 2014, when she used to go over to a friend's house to play Halo Reach with friends. Since then, the series grew on her, and she's been looking forward to the upcoming Halo Infinite. When she discovered that Steitzer, who's commanding voice has been the unnamed announcer in Halo multiplayer modes since 2001, was on Cameo, Tanis sent a request for him to say "trans rights." When the video from Steitzer came in, he signalled his support for trans people in a much more specific way.

"Hey Tanis, it's Jeff Steitzer," he begins in the video. "Normally when I do one of these videos for Cameo, it would be a recording, or a series of recordings of what I've said over the years in the game. … But in your case, I think this will be somewhat of a different kind of recording."

Steitzer goes on to say that over the course of his life, he's seen a lot of struggles for acceptance and equal rights, and that to him, the struggle for trans rights is no different.

"I am happy to say 'trans rights,'" Steitzer concludes. "I hope things will be better for you, for all of us really, soon."

Steitzer puts it quite plainly; many other marginalized groups have fought for the equality that all of us hope to enjoy, and trans people are a part of that lineage.

"The idea of fighting for trans rights isn't something complicated, and is actually quite simple for everyone to understand. It's a shame that it's been portrayed as complex," Celeste told Motherboard. "I feel like the fight for trans rights is simple to understand once explained, and anyone can learn about it and care about it."

When Tanis posted the video from Steitzer to Twitter, she added that he was "even cooler than I thought." Every other unnamed video game multiplayer announcer has big shoes to follow, now.

"I feel like the Unreal Tournament 99 announcer and maybe some of the Titanfall 2 announcers saying trans rights would be utterly fantastic," Tanis said. "Maybe it should be a requirement for all video game announcers to say it at one point!"