Cheers, love! The cavalry’s here!
Growing the LBT+ women’s community in London Gaymers
For those of you who were able to catch the first official London Gaymers (LG) Town Hall on Saturday the 24th February, either in person or online, this will come as no surprise, but for those of you who weren’t able to tune in — buckle up — because things are about to get diversified!
Women Gaymers are on the rise in LG!
I bet that’s a phrase you’d never expect to read, but it’s true! While LG is one of the oldest and largest LGBT+ gaming groups in the UK, the gender diversity of the group has always been an area of discussion and concern. In 2018 this is all set to change though, as the group has decided to take real, definitive steps towards making LG a much more inclusive environment for women-identifying gaymers, wherever they are on the LBT+ spectrum!
One of the core values in the group has always been Inclusion for Everybody, we wanted to make a space where, regardless of your sexuality or gender, you can find a safe space and a community to share the games you love with friends. The gaming community has historically been quite homophobic and misogynistic, while at the same time, LGBT+ culture doesn’t quite get geek or gamer culture either! While LG have been partly successful at achieving that aim, as with many LGBT+ spaces nowadays, it’s often too easy for the G to take over, and for the LBT+ people to go under represented.
If we want to change that pattern in LG, we realise that it isnt enough to simply say we’re welcoming for the whole LGBT+ community. We need to do something proactive to address that imbalance. As the Woman’s Rep at LG, I’ve been working on a new initiative to do just that; to turn this important value into a visible reality in our community.
Step One: Creating Space
Right off the bat, it is essential that women on the outside of the group are able to look in and see that there is room for them within the community. At present, there is an overwhelmingly large majority of cis male members, which can be, and has been in the past, a deterrent for women who may find it difficult to relate to, and to some degree trust, a heavily male group.
Unfortunately, the reality of being a woman who loves playing games, whether board, video, or mobile, includes the expectation that ones interests will be thrown into question or scrutiny due to ones gender; a threat compounded by the added LBT+ label. It is for this reason that the London Gaymers are proud to launch the women’s channel in the main London Gaymers Discord server.
The channel, listed under the general sub header in the server, is locked to anyone lacking permission; which will be granted via the server admins to members who identify as a woman (trans inclusive) upon request.
This is an important step in creating a space in which women may feel welcome; somewhere to let their guard down, and to find and relate to other gaymers. The channel helps tackle some of the fears that LGBT+ women may have, be that the pressure to represent an entire demographic, or to prove themselves worthy of their own interests. In many ways, this neatly mirrors the original endeavour of LG group, just with a greater consideration to the gender issue (which often goes hand in hand with sexuality).
The group hopes to see this channel thrive over time, for it to serve as a stepping stone into the wider group for anyone who may need it and a hub for LBT+ gamer support, comfort, and friendship.
If you are a women-identifying gaymer, we’d love for you to join us! Check out the women’s channel, which is live now, on the London Gaymers Discord server, which can be found at discord.londongaymers.co.uk
Step Two: Getting Involved!
Establishing an online presence for women-identifying gamers is just the beginning, as we want to carry this momentum and bring the energy of the online channel into the real world.
LG runs over 100 events each year, with loads of cool stuff from pub meets, online tournaments, boardgames and convention trips filling the calendar. While women gaymers are of course always welcome at every event the group hosts, we want to do more and make sure that women are not only welcome, but visibly elevated and celebrated in our events calendar.
On Monday 19th February, LG kicked-off this project with a fantastic outing to the Museum of London to attend a talk on Women in Games. Events like this not only create physical spaces for LBT+ women to occupy and feel comfortable in, but also provide opportunities for existing members to broaden their knowledge and understanding of women in games overall.
With women in games continuing to be an ongoing discussion in gaming culture, openly and publicly creating spaces entirely for and about LBT+ women gamers will continue to challenge the misogyny that often goes unchecked in gaming culture, and help widen the conversation to ensure LBT+ women’s voices arent left out. We really hope these events will make safe and celebratory spaces for women LGBT+ gamers, and show that we, as a community, fully embrace women gaymers.
Step Three: Opening and Continuing the Dialogue
LG have had a strong presence on social media for a number of years which we use both internally (to allow our members to chat and game together), and externally (to reach more people and promote gaming as an LGBT+ inclusive space). As part of the plan to broaden gender diversity within the group, we want to make greater use of our social media to raise the visibility of LBT+ women, and the issues relevant to them as gamers. Whether it’s a blog or a video, we want to find interesting, new ways to empower the voices of our female members and their allies, sharing their thoughts and experiences with the rest of the community.
While the project will be lead by LG’s members, contribution will be open to any LBT+ women gamers, to help form stronger links with women from other Gaymer groups worldwide, and female gamers more broadly. We hope this will also be a great way of getting more women involved with the group, and taking part in what makes LG really special.
Step Four: Expanding Visibility through Advertising
While strong and full of potential, the success of the above efforts relies heavily on one thing mentioned frequently throughout this article: visibility.
It‘s one thing to create a space and provide a platform for a specific community, and quite another to successfully fill it. It’s so important that potential members can find out that these spaces have been created, and that they are more than welcome to come in and be a part of the community.
As such, one of the most important steps that LG are taking is to reach out to women using targeted adverts on social media. It’s a real challenge trying to find other women gaymers, but we think that Facebook and Twitter ads currently give us the most effective way of reaching out and finding LBT+ gaymers who may be looking for a place to belong.
As we build our women's membership, it will be great to explore other methods to reach women, but we think this is a great way to kick-start the project.
We’re really excited to see where this project goes, as there haven’t really been any spaces for LBT+ gaymer women before. Our love for gaming has been an amazing thing which has brought many people together at London Gaymers already, and we really hope that if we build on this, we can make a space which is truly reflective of the amazing diversity within the whole LGBT+ community.
Emily x
You can join the LG Discord channel here: discord.londongaymers.co.uk and contact Emily (username: whyTeamDynasty on Discord) for access to the Women’s Channel.
