"I don't think LGBTQ people are mentally ill": Asmongold refutes backlash for criticizing "Gender-Inclusive Spanish" in Spider-Man 2

Popular streamer Zack "Asmongold" recently responded to online criticism for his take on the Inclusive Spanish language that has been incorporated in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Zack had recently gone viral for his reaction to fellow Twitch streamer Rubius, where the Spanish content creator disabled a certain in-game podcast for its language.

For context, the Danika podcast makes a return in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. It has become the talking point for many after Rubius turned it off on stream due to being annoyed by the host's usage of Gender-Inclusive Spanish, which apparently can be jarring to native speakers not familiar with its new gender rules.

Rubius has already gone viral on social media for the clip, and Asmongold has received some backlash for his reaction, where he appeared to be calling certain people "mentally ill." On his most recent stream, he directly responded to a post on X which accused him of being anti-LGBTQ+, and the Twitch streamer categorically denied that, saying:

"I don't think LGBTQ people are mentally ill, but I think you (the person who made the post) are."

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Asmongold, Rubius, and the Gender-Inclusive Spanish drama in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 explained

Spanish as a language is heavily gendered, and unlike some other languages, such as English, cannot be easily used with gender-neutral words. Gender-inclusive Spanish tries to mitigate this problem by introducing new words that can sound odd to native speakers used to the more prevalent system.

Rubius is one of the biggest Twitch streamers hailing from Spain and clearly did not like the usage in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, where the podcast refers to a non-binary scientist. Asmongold had defended his decision to turn off the podcast in a previous stream and had called out the developers for "changing a language" to include gender-neutral terms.

In his rant, he also apologized to the Spanish community and brought up mentally ill people:

"On behalf of all Americans who are not mentally ill, we would like to apologize to the Spanish community. We don't want this either, we think it's just as ridiculous as you do, and in fact we are even more embarrassed because it's our people that are doing it."

This comment was the subject of the attack from an X user, who called out Asmongold for insinuating that LGBTQ+ people are mentally ill. The Twitch streamer has hit back, stating that he does not think LGBTQ+ people have a mental illness, and doubled down on his statement about Gender-Inclusive Spanish, saying:

"Get mad all you want, it doesn't change reality. The reality is that the majority of Spanish speakers that I spoken to, and I have seen. And if you read the comments on that video, and I guarantee that this is what pissed her off. If you read the comments, all of the Spanish speakers, even the ones where I have to click translate to read, all agree with me."

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Viewer reactions to Asmongold's clip

Fans appeared to have the streamer's back in his reaction too. Here are a couple of responses from YouTube:

Fan reactions (Image via Asmongold Clips/YouTube)

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Asmongold is known for being outspoken about his views and has been embroiled in controversies before for his takes on stream. Here's a list of the streamer's top five most controversial comments from his career.