At AussieCon 4, you might catch up with Sumana Harihareswara, Cheryl Morgan, and Catherynne M. Valente (and there are several other LGBTQI friendly people there, too!).

Sumana offers the following suggestions of panels which may be of interest to Outer Alliance members:

Academic Panel: Fantastic females: reworking feminism in women’s fantasy — Saturday 1630 Room 203
Delia Sherman (mod), Catherynne M Valente, Gail Carriger, Alaya Johnson, Glenda Larke, Tansy Rayner Roberts
Is fantasy the new vanguard of feminist politics in specfic? Fantasy authors discuss the role of gender issues in their work.

The case for a female doctor — Sunday 1200 Room 204
Tansy Rayner Roberts, Carolina Gomez, Kerrie Dougherty, Catherynne M. Valente, Paul Cornell
He’s transformed from an old man into a young one, so why not from a man into a woman? Doctor Who remains one of the most imaginative and open-ended science fiction programmes ever produced, but can the format extend to include a female Doctor? What other elements of the series are necessary? Does he/she have to have a TARDIS? Does there need to be a companion? Must the series be British? An examination of how far you can stretch the world’s most stretchable science fiction series.

The future of gender and sexuality — Sunday 1600 Room 219
Cristina Lasaitis, David D. Levine, Erika Lacey
What does the future hold for our ideas of gender and sexuality? How will we understand these concepts in 10, 50 or even 500 years? How have science fiction texts already predicted our understanding of gender and sexuality in the future – and how accurate do we find those predictions?

AussieCon 4 also marks the launch of Cheryl’s new magazine, Salon Futura! The first issue has just launched, and you can get it here.

On the other side of the world, in Atlanta, Georgia, there’s a bunch more LGBTQI friendly stuff going on at Dragon*Con. If you’re there, you might catch Outer Alliance founder Natania Barron, who just launched the new Geek Mom blog. Look out for Lee Martindale, C.D, Covington and Racheline Maltese, among others.

C.D. and Racheline will both be reading as part of Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading on Saturday at 11:30.

Lee will be on the Beyond Binaries 101 panel on Saturday, and Racheline will be on the Beyond Binaries 201 panel on Sunday (both exploring alternatives to m/f gender pairings in spec fic).

There are several other LGBTQI themed panels on the Dragon*Con program, and Outlantacon is hosting a Rainbow Flag party on Saturday night in the Sheraton Ballroom.

Happy Con Weekend to everyone in Melbourne and Atlanta! And for those of you playing the home game, don’t forget to check out Salon Futura #1!

January

*First, a convention that’s happening right now: Arisia. This Boston, Massachusetts area con is queer, pagan, poly, and kink friendly, and has a few Outer Alliance members on the guest list. If you show up, you might run into Rose Fox, Jennifer Pelland, and Cecilia Tan. Arisia’s Fan Guests of Honor this year are a queer couple, Kevin Roche and Andy Trembley, and there is even a Queer SF&F panel on Saturday at 2:00 pm.

*Coming up next weekend (22-24 January) in San Jose, California, you can catch OA member Kyell Gold at Further ConFusion, a Furry convention.

February

*In Boston, Boskone 47 is happening on 12-14 February.

*If you can’t make it to Further ConFusion, you’ll have another chance to see Kyell Gold in Dallas, Texas over the weekend of 19-21 February. He’ll be appearing at Furry Fiesta as the Writing Guest of Honor.

*On 26-28 February, Gallifrey One is happening in Los Angeles, California. This convention is devoted to Dr. Who fandom. (Thanks to LJC for the tip!)

March

*OA member Catherine Lundoff will appear at MarsCon 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the weekend of 5-7 March.

*Last week’s Spotlight subject, Angelia Sparrow will be a guest at MidSouthCon during the weekend of 12-14 March.

May

*OutLantaCon is an LGBTQ SF convention in Atlanta, Georgia happening on 1-3 May. Nicola Griffith and Cecilia Tan will both be guests there. (Thanks to Catherine Lundoff for the tip!)

*WisCon is a feminist SF convention that takes place in Madison, Wisconsin. This year it will happen on the weekend of 27-31 May.

*That same weekend in Baltimore, Maryland, Tanya Huff (whose books have been recommended by multiple OA members in Spotlights past) will be the Guest of Honor at Balticon.

*Imaginales is a book and original illustration fair in Epinal, France, which will also take place on 27-30 May. The chair, Stéphanie Nicot, is one of France’s leading trans rights campaigners. (Thanks to Cheryl Morgan for this tip!)

June

*Angelia Sparrow will be appearing at Hypericon in Nashville Tennessee on the weekend of 4-6 June.

*That same weekend in Dallas, Texas, Catherine Lundoff will be a guest at A-Kon.

July

*CONvergence is happening on 1-4 July in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Catherine Lundoff will be there, too!

*ReaderCon is yet another Boston Area convention, but this one eschews media other than books. Jennifer Pelland usually turns up at this one, and Cecilia Tan has in the past as well.

*Finncon is happening 16-18 July in Finnland, and will feature Ellen Kushner and Pat Cadigan. (Thanks again to Cheryl Morgan for the tip!)

August

*Diversicon hasn’t put up its 2010 dates yet, but this Minneapolis, Minnesota convention exists to celebrate diversity in SF fandom.

*Au Contraire is the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention for 2010. It’s happening the weekend before this year’s WorldCon, so that people can go to both in one trip. 27-29 August in Wellington, New Zealand. (Thanks to Anna for the tip!)

September

*Memphit Fur Meet 2010 will be happening on the weekend of 3-5 September in Memphis, Tennessee. This is another small, Furry convention, and Angelia Sparrow may attend it if she isn’t traveling to Atlanta, Georgia.

*Dragon*Con (3-5 September in Atlanta, Georgia) is one of the larger convention in the US, and full of elaborate costumes.

*That same weekend, but on another continent,  the 68th WorldCon, AussieCon 4 is happening in Melbourne, Australia.

October

*Gaylaxicon, a con devoted entirely to queer speculative fiction, will take place in October in Montreal, Canada.

November

*OA member Elizabeth Bear will be the Guest of Honor at Darkover XXXIII in Timonium, Maryland on the weekend of 26-28 November.

This is just the tip of the convention iceberg, so please tell us about your favorite queer friendly conventions in the comments, and about which ones you plan to attend (I’m personally planning to attend Boskone and ReaderCon). I’ll be sure to update this page with more convention links if you tell me about them. With any luck, maybe we can all meet some of our fellow allies in person this calendar year!