A new butch snapping turtle icon has entered the chat (with a femme rabbit, as well).

The Toronto Tempo unveiled two new mascots on Tuesday, with the life-size furries taking the floor at the Scotiabank Arena in a game against the Indiana Fever.

The two mascots, Dez and Dot are, respectively, a tortoise and a hare: more accurately, a snapping turtle and an arctic hare.

“From the beginning, we wanted our mascots to feel distinctly Tempo – rooted in who we are as a Canadian team,” Whitney Bell, the Toronto Tempo’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement on the WNBA team’s official website. “Dez and Dot have completely different personalities, but they’re better together. One knows when to slow things down, the other knows when to turn the energy all the way up. That balance felt like such a natural expression of Tempo, and we can’t wait for our fans to get to know them.”

But unlike many sports mascots who are just kind of weird little creatures with very limited backstory, the Tempo’s press release includes a dossier on the pair that reads like a novella — a very queer novella. Dez, who uses she/they pronouns, is a “borealis blue” snapping turtle from Muskoka, Ontario. Their name is a play on the word “decibel” due to their love of music. They are described as “calm, clever and thinking a few steps ahead.” Dez, who is also clearly a bit more butch, is also a Taurus who DJs in their spare time, meaning this might be the first-ever DJ mascot who uses they pronouns. (This is the future liberals want, et cetera, et cetera.)

Dez’s counterpart, Dot, is an arctic hare who takes her name from Toronto’s nickname T-Dot. As a true foil to Dez’s more measured personality, Dot is energetic and enthusiastic and serves as the “hype woman” of the pair. She is a Gemini who loves cotton candy. (No side hustle for Dot, apparently.)

Of course, given Dez’s use of they/them pronouns, many people on social media speculated that Dez might be nonbinary or transmasculine.

“The name being like an alt nickname to a longer, overthought, multi-layered chosen name is so transmasc coded,” one person wrote on the Instagram post announcing Dez. And, of course, many people pointed out that Tempo might have given us our first “MASCcot.”

Several comments on Instagram also speculated as to whether Dez and Dot are friends or … more than friends. The pair’s official bio includes a … perhaps romantic-sounding meet-cute about Dot following the northern lights south to Ontario in the winter, and meeting Dez, with the pair discovering “a shared love of rhythm.” Hmm…

Them has reached out to the Toronto Tempo for clarity regarding the pair’s relationship status and Dez’s gender identity and will update when we hear back.

Dez would perhaps not be the first nonbinary WNBA mascot — if that does turn out to be the case. Earlier this year, Grace Karlsvik, who is an assistant to the Seattle Storm’s mascot Doppler, a maroon-furred creature, said that Doppler is nonbinary.

“I think it’s really special that Doppler is (I think) the first nonbinary mascot, at least in the WNBA,” Karlsvik told Seattle Met. “That’s something that really matters to us, just having that representation. I think it really matters, and people definitely recognize it, which is really special.”

Some fans found the unveiling of Dez ironic, given that it was done at a game against the Indiana Fever, a team featuring noted Sophie Cunningham, whose anti-trans positions on sports have made her a darling of the American right-wing. Several games featuring Cunningham have become lightning rods for anti-trans protests, with sparsely attended rallies outside some stadiums, and fans wearing shirts bearing “XX-XY” logos courtside.

Dez and Dot clearly have a lot to live up to, given the popularity of some WNBA mascots, especially the New York Liberty’s Ellie the Elephant, who has become a viral icon whose presence is able to whip a crowd into a frenzy.

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