Nintendo’s “Birdo” is NOT a Trans Icon

Birdo, Mario, Nintendo, & Trans Representation.

Photo by Elias Castillo on Unsplash

The character “Birdo” premiered in the Mario-verse in 1988 in the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. 2. She is a pink dinosaur-like creature of the same species as Yoshi, steed sidekick to protagonist Mario. Sources such as The Advocate have described her as one of the first trans characters in the video game industry, but there’s an obvious problem…