Gaymercon Officially Happening

Gaymercon, the first video game and geek lifestyle convention with an LGBT focus, completely crushed their $25,000 Kickstarter goal, and is set to happen next year. They managed to raise just over $90,000, which means they are going to have lots of extra goodies for contributors, like a concert, brunch, and a special guest of honour. They even received support from Xbox Live and Penny Arcade. The date for the convention is set for August 3-4 in San Francisco. Pledging a donation means an automatic ticket to the convention, so they have over a 1000 guaranteed attendees, but badges for the rest of us are not on sale yet. For now, the team is tasked with the gargantuan task of finding a venue, coming up with panels, booking panelists, and inviting industry guests.

Of course this announcement is not without controversy. I won’t link to any specific pieces because I don’t want to give these people hits, but the comments on sites like Kotaku that have announced this event are quite disheartening. And don’t even get me started on what happens if you google “people against Gaymercon”. There are many people who are against it, or “don’t see the point”, and this is exactly why this convention is necessary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a panel about LGBT issues or characters in games or geek fandom, and it’s rarely something that comes up, unless it’s people getting mad about Bioware having all the characters in Dragon Age 2 as bisexual.  And frankly, it’s pretty gross that people are even against it, and the more spaces there are to talk about these things, the better it will be for the entire gaming community.

Good luck with the planning, Gaymercon crew. You’ve definitely got supporters here!

(If you want to be in the loop on all things Gaymercon, follow them on twitter @GaymerCon, or check out their Facebook page)