June is Pride Month, and to celebrate, Apex Legends is giving all players an exclusive badge. Along with the free badge, Respawn Entertainment released a video highlighting the creation of the badge and supportive words from LGBTQ members at Respawn. Apex Legends not only has diverse representation in its developers, but also in the game's characters. Apex Legends features a very diverse character list, with characters representing different ethnicities, sexualities, and identifications.
Pride Month commemorates the Stonewall Riots in 1969, which was an event that largely started the gay rights movement in the US. To honor those who started the movement, Pride Month is a time to lift up the voices of a community that has been silenced throughout history. The Apex Legends video celebrating Pride Month gives fans a chance to hear from some of the amazing people that work hard on the game. In the video, operations manager for Respawn Annelie Fors shares what Pride means to her, "Pride means everything to me. It means the opposite of shame. It's about showing who you are and being proud of who you are."
Players that sign in to Apex Legends will receive the Pride Month badge, inspired by the Progress Pride flag created by artist and musician Daniel Quasar. The Progress Pride flag includes both the rainbow flag and the white, pink, and light blue stripes of the Transgender Pride flag. Apex Legends associate quality designer Mackenzie Galbraith also helped work on the badge, which players can display on any character banner.
The video released for Pride Month also highlights the LGBTQ characters in Apex Legends. Each character has a unique backstory, so many fans have identified with certain characters. For instance, Gibralter is a gay Pacific Islander, which has not been represented in video games much. Bloodhound is a German non-binary character and Season 9 legend Valkyrie is a lesbian Japanese character. With so many different backgrounds and identities, Apex Legends characters are some of the most inclusive of representation in video games.
The Pride Month badge is the third exclusive badge Apex Legends has released to bring attention to human rights. The Black Lives Matter badge and the Stop Asian Hate badge were the other two that were given away by Respawn. Badges originally could only be earned through events and in-game achievements, but the exclusive badges given away by Respawn are a great way to show support.
Players can now equip the Pride Month badge and jump into some of the newer features of Apex Legends. Season 9 introduced the 3 vs. 3 Arenas mode, Valkyrie, changes to the Olympus map, and the new Bocek Bow, so players can experience all the festivities of Season 9 and upcoming events.
Apex Legends is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
