Outer Alliance Pride Day 9/1/09 August 25, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : Outer Alliance Pride Day , trackback
This is a point that probably does not need to be reiterated too often among our group, but one that never quits being useful: when they (the members of the majority culture, or whatever you want to call them) know personally even one of us, then they tend to be more open-minded about who we are, more ready to give up those prejudices based on what we are not. This fact, more than any other, is why we are winning what American right-wingers like to call “the culture war” in spite of our vast numerical disadvantage. Every single time a queer comes out or a straight ally speaks up in favor equality of human dignity, at least one, and usually more, of our opponents fall back and retrench or just give up. The John C. Right Affair is good example of it.
On September 1, the Outer Alliance will conduct its first major public action, our “coming out,” so to speak. Please read below the text of Natania’s post in the Google Group discussion from earlier today. Consider recruiting and inviting new members to participate, or even enlisting non-members who may wish to speak up. The idea is to see many, many sites all doing the same basic thing at the same time:
“So, we’ve been thinking of an inaugural event to coincide with our newly minted Outer Alliance badges, and in concert with the revamped mission statement. Right now our greatest strength is not (yet!) in our web presence (as an organization) or a resource (as a blog), but simply in our numbers:
The idea is this: on Tuesday September 1st, 2009 we’re asking our members to post our mission statement on their blogs/sites, which reads*:
As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.
Then below, a short example of queer speculative fiction. It can be something you’re working on now, an excerpt from something you’ve already published, a piece of fanfic, an image; or, for those who might not have any of those on handy, a short piece talking about how queer speculative fiction came to your attention, a biography of a writer you admire, or a review.
We’ll provide a handy little graphic banner to include in the post, and link back to all the posts on our main page. It doesn’t have to be long** or time-consuming. The idea is to make this easy but effective. Now for some of you, this might be old hat; for others, it might be the first time you’ve been open about your support (since we are made up of all sorts of different people with various experiences in the LGBT community). It’s all up to you if you want to contribute. The good part is that it will bring traffic to your site, as well as the OA site, and get our shiny new mission statement there.”
We know we are not giving people much time to plan for this, but we hope that everyone will find a few minutes to participate. Also, PLEASE reply to the Outer Alliance Pride Day discussion or to this post with the link to your Pride Day post so that we can get them all compiled onto a page on this site for easy reference. Depending on your particular computing system, you should be able to copy the logo image directly from this post and use it as an image with yours (and please make a link back here, too, of course). Also, Mari Kurisato has made available a directory of Outer Alliance graphics for your use. (If you have trouble obtaining a banner image, yell, and someone will help).
Comments»
I think this is a terrific idea, and would be happy to post it on the Crossed Genres blog, as well as my personal blog.
I have a question. September 1, coincidentally, happens to be the day that Crossed Genres begins accepting submissions to our double-sized LGBT-themed issue. Since they coincide so well, would you be okay with my posting this, and then instead of an example of queer fiction, describe the issue and mention how we’re accepting open submissions? I think this is well in keeping with the short mission statement that would precede it.
Also, we have a “Website Spotlight” on our main page, and we’re planning on spotlighting Outer Alliance for at least part of September (the rest of the month would be other LGBT-friendly organizations).
@Bart Absolutely we’re okay with that! The idea is that our posts reflect the mission statement, and your announcement is perfect.
@Natania Great! I thought so too, but I wanted to check anyway.
@ Natania Can you recommend any resources/list/review sites for newbies? Other than Nicola Griffith, I am pretty ignorant of queer authors in SF/F. Or more likely, ignorant that authors X, Y & Z are queer. (I better hope for choice B, as 9/1/9 is pretty soon.)
Genreville relaunches that day and we’ll be delighted to participate.
@Marc We’ve got a great thread going here with some wonderful recommendations! Also, our Members page has a ton of links!
@Rose A wonderful coincidence! Thank you.
@Natania Thanks very much. Wow. “tons of links” is right.
[...] Hey, don’t forget Outer Alliance Pride Day is happening September 1. I will post a cool banner here soon. [...]
[...] Find out here what Outer Alliance Pride Day is all about. And of course, you should go join the Alliance, too. [...]
[...] As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, pu… [...]
Hey y’all! My Outer Alliance Pride Day post is up a little early, to spur on new members and the curious observers to post theirs by tomorrow, too!
http://cesartorres.net/blog/?p=1200
[...] and partly just because it’s necessary. They’ve asked that, as of September 1, people show their support by posting their mission statement and logo, and then linking to a piece of fiction which is [...]
[...] in Anchorage, but in some parts of the world — most of it by now, in fact — it’s already Outer Alliance Pride Day. That means that around the world, Outer Alliance members are already posting excerpts from their [...]
I’ve just applied for membership, so in case it doesn’t go through in time for me to pass my link along to you in time to be included, my post is up at:
http://jenwrites.livejournal.com/807183.html
Thanks!
Whoops — came to post this, and somehow you guys found it already. I bow before the power of your Google Alerts!! Well, anyway: http://nkjemisin.com/2009/09/supporting-the-outer-alliance-pride-day-9109/. =)
I haven’t joined yet, but here’s my post anyway:
http://herdingthedragon.blogspot.com/2009/09/outer-alliance-pride-day.html
Thanks!
Samantha
Here’s my post: http://blog.katharinebeutner.com/2009/09/01/the-first-rule-of-pride-day-do-talk-about-pride-day/
Now off to read through the others. Thanks for organizing this — it’s wonderful!
Forgot to post this!
http://www.kvtaylor.com/welcome/?p=811
Hey there! The pingback doesn’t seem to be kicking in for me, so I thought I’d post a link here. Hope you don’t mind:
http://filkertom.livejournal.com/1057731.html
Excellent idea – I’m happy I could participate:
http://talkstowolves.livejournal.com/69608.html
[...] “Outer Alliance Pride Day 9/1/09″ (The Outer [...]