Tech

Has ‘Grand Theft Auto’ gone ‘woke?’ Notorious YouTuber pushes unfounded claims about game’s new female protagonist

Keemstar’s channel cited a year-old Reddit post with 0 upvotes as proof.

Photo of Mikael Thalen

Mikael Thalen

Female protagonist in Grand Theft Auto 6(two split)

A channel for the notorious YouTuber Keemstar, real name Daniel Keem, is claiming that the recently revealed female protagonist in Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA6) is “rumored to be transgender.”

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In a post on the X account for his YouTube channel known as DramaAlert, Keem cited a post on Reddit as evidence of the character’s potential gender identity.

“First look at ‘GTA 6’ female protagonist. She is rumored to be transgender,” DramaAlert posted. “Franklin’s sugar mama?”

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The Reddit post in question, which was made over a year ago on r/GrandTheftAutoV, received 0 upvotes and only four replies. DramaAlert’s post racked up over 20,000 likes, however.

“We now know that GTA 6 will have a female protagonist. We don’t yet know if there will also be a male protagonist,” the Redditor wrote at the time. “But rumors are circling that Rockstar made the female protagonist a trans woman.”

Users in the comments noted that they had encountered no rumors whatsoever that the character, named Lucia, was intended to be transgender. Several recent comments made in the wake of Keem’s post criticized the YouTuber for suggesting that the post lent credibility to the claim.

“Fucking dramaalert posting this thread as a source wtf,” one user said.

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Viewed more than 4.8 million times, Keem’s post on X has been hit with criticism from gamers who feel the YouTuber is merely attempting to stir up drama.

“Hey, that source is just some random Reddit post, bruh,” one user responded.

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Others criticized the handful of users who appeared to lend credence to the unfounded claim.

“The fragile masculinity goblins using keemstar as a source to create the most abhorrent and unfounded takes to offend themselves on an unreleased piece of media,” another said.

https://twitter.com/MK1EDITS/status/1732088754578370737?s=20
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Numerous users also mentioned the fact that Keem is 41 years old while accusing him of being immature.

“41 year old man worrying about if a character is trans or not,” an X user wrote.

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Although a handful of users did appear to believe Keem’s claims were legitimate, the vast majority appeared to push back on the post.

At no point has Rockstar Games, the developer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, publicly made any references to the latest game’s character being transgender.

Keemstar is not the first person this week to be embarrassed for their take on GTA6, which has been a huge topic of discussion since its first trailer dropped on Monday.

X owner Elon Musk was also ridiculed after stating that he refused to play games in the franchise given that users are required to commit crimes.

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