A gamer is someone who plays interactive games, either video games, tabletop role-playing games, skill-based card games, or any combination thereof, and who often plays for extended periods of time. Originally a hobby, gaming has evolved into a profession for some, with some gamers routinely competing in games for money, prizes, or awards. In some countries, such as the US, UK, and Australia, the term "gaming" can refer to legalized gambling, which can take both traditional and digital forms, such as through online gambling. There are many different gamer communities around the world. Since the advent of the Internet, many communities take the form of Internet forums or YouTube or Twitch virtual communities, as well as in-person social clubs. In 2021, there were an estimated 3.24 billion gamers across the globe.
"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) characters have been depicted in video games since the 1980s. Throughout the history of video games, LGBTQ characters have been almost nonexistent for a long time, reflecting the overall heteronormativity of the medium. While there has been a trend towards greater representation of LGBTQ people in video games, they are frequently identified as LGBTQ in secondary material, such as comics, rather than in the games themselves. Often, LGBTQ characters and themes, when they are included, are underrepresented, minimized, or watered down. Queer games and characters have also often found themselves being the subjects of cultural crossfires or moral panics. In 2018, Sam Greer of GamesRadar+ found only 179 games commercially released games with any LGBTQ representation, only 83 of which have queer characters who are playable characters, and only 8 of those games feature a main character who is pre-written as queer as opposed to them being queer as an option.
Gaymer and gay gamer are umbrella terms used to refer to the group of people who are identified as homosexual and have an active interest in video games or tabletop games, also known as gamers. Bisexual, and transgender gamers are often categorized under this term.
Boy Culture is a 2006 American romantic drama film directed by Q. Allan Brocka, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Matthew Rettenmund. The film stars Derek Magyar, Darryl Stephens, Patrick Bauchau, Jonathon Trent, and Emily Brooke Hands.
Queer anarchism, or anarcha-queer, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates anarchism and social revolution as a means of queer liberation and abolition of hierarchies such as homophobia, lesbophobia, transmisogyny, biphobia, transphobia, aphobia, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and the gender binary.
Matt Conn is the founder and former CEO of MidBoss. He is known for the creation of GaymerX, the cyberpunk story adventure game Read Only Memories, and producing the LGBTQ video game documentary Gaming In Color.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
Ellen McLain is an American voice actress. She is best known for providing the voice of GLaDOS, the primary antagonist of the Portal video game series, the Combine Overwatch AI in Half-Life 2, and the Administrator, the announcer in Team Fortress 2. Her voice roles also include the Jaeger A.I. in Pacific Rim and The Witch in Left 4 Dead 2.
GaymerX is an American public-benefit nonprofit corporation based in California dedicated to celebrating and supporting LGBTQ+ people and culture in the world of gaming, with a focus on video games. GaymerX puts on a fan-facing convention with LGBT-oriented gaming and geek culture, or gaymer, with panels primarily focused on LGBT issues and debates in the gaming industry.
MidBoss is an American video game and media production company that was founded by members of the GaymerX team as they expanded beyond GaymerX into other ventures, specifically Gaming in Color and 2064: Read Only Memories.
2064: Read Only Memories is a cyberpunk adventure game developed by MidBoss. It was directed by John "JJSignal" James, written by Valerie Amelia Thompson and Philip Jones, and features an original soundtrack by 2 Mello.
Good As You is a support and social group for LGBTQ people and others questioning their gender and sexuality in Bangalore. It started in 1994 and is one of the longest surviving groups that advocates equal rights for homosexuals and other gender and sexual minorities in Bangalore.
Jaime Woo is a Canadian writer and game developer. He is best known for his 2013 book Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, an exploration of the impact of Grindr on social interaction in the gay male community which was a shortlisted nominee for the Lambda Literary Award for non-fiction at the 26th Lambda Literary Awards.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:
In the United States, LGBT youth of colour are marginalized adolescents in the LGBT community. Social issues include homelessness; cyberbullying; physical, verbal and sexual abuse; suicide; drug addiction; street violence; immigration surveillance; engagement in high-risk sexual activity; self-harm, and depression. The rights of LGBT youth of colour are reportedly not addressed in discussions of sexuality and race in the larger context of LGBT rights.
ClexaCon is a former annual fan convention focused on female members of the LGBTQ community. The convention is named after the "ship" name for Clarke and Lexa, characters on the CW series The 100. The inaugural ClexaCon was held at Bally's Hotel and Casino from March 3–5, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Flame Con is an annual two-day multi-genre entertainment and comic convention, focused on fans and creators of pop culture who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ). Launched in 2015, it is the first LGBTQ comic convention in New York City, and the largest LGBTQ comic convention in the world.
Straightwashing is portraying LGB or otherwise queer characters in fiction as heterosexual (straight), making LGB people appear heterosexual, or altering information about historical figures to make their representation comply with heteronormativity.
Queer Japan is a 2019 documentary film directed, edited, and co-written by Graham Kolbeins. The documentary profiles a range of individuals in Japan who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ). Queer Japan is produced by Hiromi Iida with Anne Ishii, written by Ishii and Kolbeins, and features an original score composed by Geotic.
