Trans, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid Cosplayers On Finding Their Safe Space In Conventions“Geek

Trans, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid Cosplayers On Finding Their Safe Space In Conventions“Geek spaces have always felt precious to me. Places like comic book shops and conventions are often where I feel most comfortable, thus that’s where I fear sexism and homophobia the most. What is worse than a violation of your safe space, the place where you don’t feel ridiculous for talking about the things you love?I’m lucky in that my fears have mostly gone unfounded. My regular comic book shop, Alley Cat Comics, has an amazing staff that has always made me feel welcome and never made me feel dumb for asking questions. I’ve been to a dozen conventions, yet I’ve never been called a fake geek girl or had to take down a sexist jerk. Even more incredible is that I’m not alone; while the assholes are out there, many geek spaces are populated by super rad, open-minded people who just want to talk nerd.We need to both celebrate and examine the geek spaces that are welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ crowd (with heavy emphasis on the BTQIA+) and show the world that this is what our communities – geeky or not – can look like. With this in mind, I put out a call asking transgender, genderqueer and/or genderfluid identified individuals to share their experiences of finding community and safe space through cosplay. Seven people responded: Dany Ashby, Ashley, Sarah, Charles Battersby, Patrick, Lyn, and Pantydragon. After hearing their stories I’ve picked out a few commonalities that I believe make cons and cosplay spaces unique and safe environments.While I hope that this article will contribute to a wider conversation about how we can both protect and improve our safe spaces, reading these cosplayers’ full stories – and engaging in a messier, more candid conversation – was an amazing experience. I don’t want those conversations to end here, so I’m launching Queer Geek Spaces: a very creatively named tumblr dedicated toward letting queer and transgender geeks share their positive and negative experiences with geek spaces. You can read the full stories of some of the cosplayers who contributed to this article at the tumblr, and I encourage you to share your own stories!”Read the stories here -- source link

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