Trans esports, video games trailblazer Rebecca Heineman dies at 62

Rebecca Heineman, a pioneering figure in esports, video game development and LGBTQ advocacy within the video game world, has dies. She was 62 years old.

Heineman’s close friend Heidi McDonald broke the news on Monday, followed by an outpouring of love from Heineman’s peers, friends and other trans individuals who viewed her story as an inspiration on social media.

Her passing comes less than two months after Heineman was diagnosed with an aggressive form of adenocarcinoma in her lungs and liver. She provided several updates on her treatment through a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for her cancer treatment in subsequent weeks, but her final update on Sunday confirmed the worst.

“It’s time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless,” Heineman wrote. “So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays.”

The timing of the update allowed Heineman the unique opportunity of seeing people celebrate and eulogize her on social media while she was alive.

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40 years on, videogames icon Rebecca Heineman found herself beyond her ‘escape’
Heineman became the first national gaming champion in 1980 but didn’t truly begin the process of finding self-worth until recognizing she was transgender in the 2000s.

While best known for co-founding the influential PC game development studio Interplay in 1983 and her work on seminal titles like “The Bard’s Tale 3: Thief of Fate” and “Dragon Wars,” Heineman is also recognized as the first American video game champion for winning a national Space Invaders tournament organized by Atari in 1980.

That championship win propelled her into a groundbreaking career in game development that helped her build the confidence to come out as trans in 2003. She served on LGBTQ advocacy workplace advocacy groups for major names in tech, including Microsoft, Sony and Amazon, and held a seat on the board of GLAAD over the course of her career.

Aside from the hundreds of games Heineman worked on in some capacity during her 40-plus year career, her legacy is more properly defined by her push for inclusion for LGBTQ and female populations within the industry and as audiences on which it should focus.

Gayming Magazine honored her with the Gayming Icon award at the 2025 Gayming Awards, saying, “her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility and diversity in tech has inspired countless developers and players.”

“There is no shortage of [LGBTQ people in games and esports], you just have to go look for them. LGBTQ people really look like everyone else,” Heineman told Outsports in 2020. “Unless you ask who they’re dating, they’re pretty indistinguishable, which is why we’re trying to educate everyone else about it.”

That commitment also existed at a granular level for Heineman as the numerous stories of her speaking with younger trans and queer folks about her journey to self-confidence and comfort about herself as a form of paying it forward.

“It really wasn’t until 2000 before I actually was brave enough to start looking into transitioning and getting therapy,” Heineman said. “I was trying to understand what was really going on with me … I started seeing websites and articles about people like me. That’s when it dawned on me that I wasn’t alone. That was the catalyst for me coming out.”

Heineman’s GoFundMe will remain open to raise funds for her funeral and support her family.

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The post Trans esports, video games trailblazer Rebecca Heineman dies at 62 appeared first on Outsports.