Outer Alliance Pride Day 9/1/09 August 25, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : Outer Alliance Pride Day , 22comments
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).
Poll: Forum or Email? August 24, 2009
Posted by Natania in : The Outer Alliance, membership, polls , 4commentsA week ago, we started The Outer Alliance. At the time, we had about four members. By Wednesday we had forty. This morning we have 107.
In order to facilitate easier conversation and organization throughout, we’re considering having a forum.
The pros? It means we can order our thoughts a little better. Currently the GoogleGroups systems works on some levels, but doesn’t really allow for categorization. I like ordered little categories and responses. They make me happy.
Cons? A forum would require another login, and would make email notifications completely up to the user. It also would likely mean a little more in the way of moderation.
So, I thought I would leave the decision to you all. If a majority would like a forum, we’ll set one up that you can access directly off the site. If not, we’ll keep the current system as it is.
Thanks for the feedback!
[polldaddy poll="1910546"]
Joining the Outer Alliance August 19, 2009
Posted by Natania in : The Outer Alliance, membership , 3commentsThere is an easier way to join the Outer Alliance. Simply go to The Outer Alliance GoogleGroup page and fill out the short form.
If you’ve already emailed/commented, don’t worry about using the link. We’ll be adding you directly.
Thanks for the overwhelming support! More updates soon.
Welcome to the Outer Alliance August 18, 2009
Posted by Natania in : The Outer Alliance , 33commentsWelcome to the Outer Alliance. So far, the idea is that the blog functions on three levels: education, support, and celebration of LGBT contributions in SF/F writing.
Who is invited into the Outer Alliance? Anyone who supports the community’s tenets and is committed to engaging in intelligent discussion about LGBT issues in SF/F. This is a group founded in the belief that the best course against bigotry and discrimination is by rising above it, not stooping down to it.
This group is open to all writers (professionals and fledgelings alike) of SF/F (speculative, horror, paranormal, etc)–and their friends–of any inclination. The idea is that this is an alliance, so as long as you uphold the tenets of the Outer Alliance (see below) you’re welcome in.
- The Outer Alliance is a group of SF/F writers and friends dedicated to LGBT advocacy through education, support, and celebration.
- As a member of the Outer Alliance I pledge to uphold the tenets of education, support, and celebration of LGBT contributions to the science-fiction and fantasy genres through my actions and work, online and in print.
Things we hope to accomplish: blog articles, guest posts, community shout-outs, web-badges, newsletters, mailing lists. This is in no way meant to be a group that bombards you with information every ten minutes; I’m thinking a monthly newsletter, and biweekly mailing list announcements (we’ll cross post to the blog, as well, with celebrations of stories sold/published, important news, etc.)
If you’d like to join the Outer Alliance please visit our GoogleGroups page and fill out the form.