What's Geeks OUT About?
Geeks OUT rallies, empowers and promotes the queer geek community.
Ours is a diverse and growing culture made up of enthusiastic fans of all ages, colors, genders, sizes, and nationalities. Through regular events and a dynamic social media and online presence, Geeks OUT seeks to facilitate interaction locally, globally, and virtually, both to celebrate our shared geekiness and to focus and promote our own unique LGBT voice within that community.
Queer culture adds boldness, breadth, and an outsider edge to geek culture. Geeks OUT celebrates our contribution to the larger pop culture conversation by promoting queer and queer-positive artists, creators, and works; by calling out and combating homophobia and lack of diversity in geek culture; and balancing a queer viewpoint on mainstream geekery with a geeky view of the LGBT world.
Geeks OUT aims to offer and maintain a visible and vivacious queer presence at geek events, fostering inclusivity and openness within our community. By hosting a booth at conventions, we highlight the fact that LGBT fans are an integral part of geek culture, encouraging greater participation and representation for this generation of queer fans and the next.
Keep it fun, kids. Central to our mission is the free and un-cynical enjoyment of geek culture. While dedicated to our community, we stand united in fandom. Celebrating and promoting the LGBT fans within geek culture strengthens and enriches that culture for all.
FLAME ON!
Geeks OUT began in October of 2010 with a singular if ambitious goal: To establish a booth at the 2011 New York Comic-Con where queer geeks could belong. We didn't want LGBT fans to be an invisible element at the Con. We wanted to raise the visibility of both our local community and the larger presence of queer fandom. In the wake of the It Gets Better Movement, we were inspired to imagine a queer-positive zone where our people and allies would be represented, where it was cool to be a queer geek even if the rest of geek culture was still catching up.
We accomplished this goal. With the amazing help of organizations like Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS and Prism Comics, generous donors, and legions of new members, Geeks OUT not only had the sickest booth at the 2011 Con (Did you see our banner or our capes? I mean, come on.), but we presented a standing-room-only panel, “It Gets Better (with Comics)!,” with a special shout-out from The New York Times. Check out the incredible video we recorded in the booth!
TO ME, MY GEEKS!
What can you do? Join the fight! Sign up on geeksout.org so you can comment on blogs and articles, post original content, create and publicize queer geek events, and interact with the community! Check back often for events, news, and updates. Got a few bucks burnin’ a hole in your pocket? Donate to our cause.
