Hey Blerdy Tribe! It’s Pride Month and that means every site and major company is decked out in all their rainbow colored branding and for one short month the LGBTQ+ community is on the front page of everyone’s newsfeed. It’s a time of celebration for how far the community has come over the years, but also for how wonderfully multifaceted the LGBTQ+ community is and continues to be.
Throughout the month, queer people and stories have been at the forefront of everyone’s consciousness, with companies using queer individuals to promote their products and brands. But, for many in the community they don’t have the luxury of being able to speak on their own behalf or the safety to be their true authentic selves. Or worse, people from outside of the community will do the talking for them…
While we’re making strides to create safe spaces for folks, there is still a ways to go especially in some nerd spaces and fandoms. The gaming sphere is especially notorious for being unkind to folks who aren’t white cishet men. So I’m glad that more folks are starting to branch out and create their own independent projects.
This Pride Month, I wanted to take a step back and create a space for folks from the LGBTQ+ community to speak their truth–because Blerdy Otome is and always will remain a safe space. So, I did a call for Queer game devs/folks working in the gaming industry to participate in an “interview” where they shared their thoughts and their experiences on being queer in the gaming community. The response was overwhelming and I want to thank everyone who lent their voices to this project–you all are the real MVPs! So, enough of me, let’s turn things over to the amazing folks!
Continue reading “Voices of the Community – Game Devs on LGBTQ+ Representation in Games”
