Happy Gay 2026, WrA!

Wyrmrest Accord
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:rainbow: Happy Gay, WrA!

This year is the first year we have a Pride-related event by Blizzard themselves coming to the game with the Darkspear Dash. This event was a player-run event hosted on Feathermoon-US for years that also raises proceeds to the Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org) an organization founded to be a lifeline for LGBTQ+ folks in mental crisis. Since itā€™s not easy being queer during these days of days, in addition to our usual annual queer celebration and whimsy, letā€™s talk about how Pride came about and why itā€™s so importantā€¦

:red_question_mark: Why do we have Pride Month?

In very recent history (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots) that also unfortunately continues repeating itself, a group of serially harassed LGBTQ+ folks decided enough was enough and stood up for themselves and their community. This snowball down a hill coalesced into the many organizations and movements today to continue combatting systemic discrimination and harassment by public and private entities so LGBTQ+ folks can simply just be and have equal rights to simply existing and pursuing happiness as their straight counterparts do.

While we have made much progress thanks to the tireless efforts of such organizations over the years, queer folks continue to experience day-to-day harassment, violence, and discrimination. While Pride Month originally was a riot, then a protest, then today often a fun parade, its original roots should not be forgotten. :rainbow:

:red_question_mark: Do LGBTQ+ people exist Lore-wise in WoW?

Yes! Blizzard has explicitly confirmed that queerness not only exists in WoW, but the historical discrimination and violence that occurs IRL has not occurred in WoW in any of its societies. In other words, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments are not canonical in WoW no matter the race or civilization, and they live as many hope one day to live outside the game world: As normal people living normal lives as civilians, soldiers, leaders, or otherwise just people in the wonderful world of Azeroth.

Weā€™ve also seen more and more LGBTQ+ characters added throughout the years, whether they be as prolific as the spymaster of Stormwind himself or side quest characters asking adventurers to help them gather thoughtful gifts for their partners at home and just happen to be gay. This kind of normalization and representation is deeply important and appreciated.

To thank, celebrate, and encourage more of this inclusion, let us begin what weā€™ve come here forā€¦

:anchor: Let the Annual WoW LGBTQ+ Shipping Wars BEGIN!

Ships can include confirmed LGBTQ+ couplings or hopefuls, or even lowkey queer mentionings such as Love is in the Air side quests. There also are many new side quests with overt or subtle LGBTQ+ inclusions that we can appreciate during the most rainbow month of the year. :slight_smile:

:rainbow: So WrA, how are you spending Pride Month this year?

:rainbow: Which LGBTQ+ confirmed or hopeful couplings would you like to squee about?

:rainbow: Will you be participating in the Blizzard Darkspear Dash event?

:rainbow: What other in-game Pride Month events are you hosting/planning to attend this year?

A friendly reminder also to use forum ignore and report tools for any derailing or off-topic trolls. :saluting_face:

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Donā€™t forget Darkspear Dash coming up in June!

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Cheers and bump to all! I will probably participate in the Dash but if I donā€™t, Iā€™m there in spirit.

Sadly wonā€™t be doing much in June but gonna show my support how I can..with kindness!

Much love to all :dracthyr_love_animated:

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Reminder to not fund corporate gay bait, see if your area has a Pride Farmerā€™s Market, or stop and swap, for gay made, or made for gays merchandise.

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Fantastic idea! Thank you Crypt.

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More people and community-oriented Pride celebrations has become my favorite trend these last years. Iā€™m once again attending all of those instead of the corporate-sponsored Pride in the big city. Many hyper-local LGBTQ+ owned business tend to sponsor or frequent those, so itā€™s a great way to connect and support everyday people in your community.

Also, Iā€™d like to welcome Umbric and Rommath to the great LGBTQ+ shipping wars this year. And Zulā€™jarra and Liadrin. Who else?

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I prefer community oriented everything right now, not just for Pride. Donā€™t get me wrong, virtual communities are great. But itā€™s great to actually get out and meet people locally, face to face. I think sometimes we get so detached from the physical world that we start to lose touch with our common humanity.

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This is how Iā€™ve been recently, too. Since the pendulum always shifts, Iā€™m hoping others are dropping or pausing reliance on social media and getting out more in their local communities. Itā€™s something weā€™ve lost as a society over the years and weā€™ve definitely suffered the rolling consequences of it.

That said, I canā€™t completely eschew online communities where folks find their people where they otherwise couldnā€™t due to geographical, health, or other such limitations out of their control. Tight-knit online communities with standards of safety are a great way to help marginalized folks find their fellows and help them survive isolation, and that canā€™t be discounted.

Also, with the advent of genAI and bots still flooding social media, the Dead Internet Theory becomes more and more convincing every year, so getting outside when you can is getting more crucial, imo.

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I agree that online communities definitely have their value. I think they can be true communities and are valuable.

I think that the current AI craze in media is point out exactly how reliant weā€™ve become on the interwebs. The rather quickly developing backlash Iā€™m seeing makes me think that people are realizing that maybe in addition to going out to touch grass, maybe we need to talk to person also.

Each of us is a member of many different communities. With the introduction of the internet we were no long bound to a geographic community. I grew up in a tiny little town in a rural area. It would have be great to be able to talk to people ā€œlike meā€. I think in some cases and for some people it has been a literal life saver. Itā€™s hard to feel like you are the only one like you. Itā€™s nice to know you arenā€™t alone and to have someone for support. I think there are very few humans who donā€™t need some form of social interaction - even if they donā€™t think they do.

I think itā€™s a balance between IRL and online that depends on the individual. Pride events, and local festivals are a good way to get out and see people, since they bring together people with common interests and that can make social interactions easier, or maybe less awkard.

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Growing up, having more connection to the LGBTQ+ community would have made my adolescence different, including down to many choices and roads not taken because the lack of role models and validation.

And this isnā€™t uncommon for people like myself of the bi/pan spectrum. There was a plethora of media and general societal acceptance when a girl likes a boy, but when youā€™re a middle school girl starting to develop crushes on girls as well, it can become very confusing, very quickly. The running bi panic joke of ā€œdo I want to be her or be with herā€ comes to mind and I very much felt that as a confused middle and high schooler with no lifeboat to cling to in a deep red sea of homophobia where I grew up.

But I also agree that there is a balance to things. People being isolated due to literal geography is not good, but so is chronically being online where algorithms and echo chambers poison perception. Bots on parade and more recently genAI laid those problems bare in a way I think Iā€™ll eventually be thankful for but for now, Iā€™m just happy Iā€™m not the only one seeing the Internet for the dead weight itā€™s become.

The irony of discussing this on a game forums isnā€™t lost on me, but we still need our hobbies in moderation to survive. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I grew up in a Christian city, inundated by heteronormativity. I was asked what boys I liked and I had it drilled into me to prepare to find a husband and have children.

I knew I was a Lesbian since I started noticing physical attraction, for other girls not boys, even if at the time I didnā€™t have a word for it until I found lgbt circles.

I played video games in an era where in order to romance the female characters I had to play a male character so I did so.

I had celebrity crushes on the likes of Xena warrior Princess (no het reason for that show to exist), Ripley, Sarah Connor (masc queens), and a host of other power female role models that I didnā€™t want to just be like but also wanted to be with.

I joined Drama club and Stage crew and found other Queer people and a culture of lgbt authenticity in a high school that explicitly banned displays of lgbt presentation as obscene and predatory.

I was not always as open as I wished I could be. My mother threatened conversion therapy even though it is illegal, men disregarded and minimized my sexuality and identity and told me I just need the right guy.

Media, mainstream and alt, fetishized my community and made Lesbianism a thing for men to enjoy carnally and viscerally minimizing the idea that women can love each other deeply and passionately and it isnā€™t a shallow and sexualized thing to love and to hold another woman.

Life was not and is not safe for this community even today. And I feel blessed that I can express who I am, present sapphic art and poetry (that I hope lives up to Sappho) openly on behalf of those around the world in countries where women can still be murdered for daring to kiss another woman. For men who are seen as awful for loving another man, and for trans people who are front and center as the victims of the latest widespread and a troublingly accepted genocide that we are witnessing in our own supposed ā€œland of the freeā€.

Happy pride. We arenā€™t illegal, we arenā€™t evil, and we arenā€™t going anywhere, regardless of how loudly they cry about it and clutch their heteronormative pearls.

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Thank you for sharing your story. Itā€™s hard but those who have been through it opening up helps educate folks that anti-LBGTQ+ sentiments are still very strong and have a life-long impact on those who live it.

For my part, I just want less kids confused and left alone with nothing but rejection or ignorance as their guides. This is why representation and community are so important.

My confirmation of my sapphic feelings was confirmed by the Sailor Moon manga of all things when Uranus and Neptune appeared. Uranus very much was an icon to me and remains my favorite senshi. Of course, when the Cloverway dub hit Toonami in the 00s, they were changed to really uncomfortably close cousins.

It was funny to me then and still a little funny now, but the absurdity that that was more acceptable than them being romantic settled in and stayed years later.

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My ā€œsonā€ (heā€™s actually my cousin but his mom has done nothing in his life and he calls me mom) discovered he was gay.

In his school? He had support.

At home? He doesnā€™t.

Except I do my best to encourage him to discover who he is and that I love him no matter what. Nobody else in the family wants to know and/or shames him which I find disgusting because I was taught (by my adopted family) to treat everyone the same no matter their skin color, orientation or anything else.

I for one am glad we have these events, have our couples ingame and thereā€™s support. Itā€™s whatā€™s needed in this harsh world that seems to be getting worse day by day.

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Iā€™m on vacation all month so Iā€™m going to celebrate YEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH!!

My funny gay story is my work always participates in my cityā€™s Pride Parade event, Iā€™m pretty mid on corporate pride but one year my coworkers really wanted me to join them. So I caved and said yes but I slept in that morning (because I was partying the night before). Since I showed up late I didnā€™t get a shirt and couldnā€™t march with my work lmao and everyone was so upset with me. So my gay friends with another company that was marching text me and was like HEY COME MARCH WITH US WE HAVE SHIRTS. So I got a free shirt from the wrong company LOL. Then later found my coworkers and they were like WHAT THE HELL TRAITOR!

Anyway corporate pride is cringe but it was fun to do it wrong that one year.

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These stories are important because for a long time people didnā€™t know what was up with themselves except by the erroneous claims made by people around them who meant to push them into a neat het box.

Even my father for all his work trying, sometimes fell into the trap of ā€œthey deserve to be safe but canā€™t they just be safe in the privacy of their own home?ā€

Funny enough, that was before I came out. And when he realized he had a gay daughter he started doing a complete 180, much to the chagrin of my thusly mentioned mother, because he didnā€™t want me to have to hide who I was.

And thatā€™s an uncomfortable truth too. For many older individuals their own homophobia stems from lack of personalized relationship to the culture often times just becoming so ingrained many find themselves too deep to move in a different direction so they double down.

Thatā€™s why they try to shove the representation away, theyā€™re hiding their heads in the sand. And thatā€™s doubly why we need it. Seeing it, and seeing the humanity of queer people even third party, makes it harder for people to want to hate them.

So keep yourself safe first, but once that is assured; keep yourself out, and visible and alive and well.

I have a salon appointment coming up to get the sunset flag colors over my hair, because I do find myself in a position to be outwardly queer this June. And if my look can be a signal to other queer people that they are not alone in the world then I think thatā€™s a good goal for the month.

Iā€™m 38, and have come to terms with the fact that I am approaching that age where Iā€™m one of the older role models for queer youth who are just reaching adulthood.

The kind of role models I wished I had when I was their age.

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Happy Pride, my geists and ghouls! Iā€™m here for your obligatory ace representation. The irony of asexuality being invisible and my main character being a ghost is not lost on me. When I was but a wee ghostlette I never understood how relationships worked, I thought you just picked a dude at random and that was your romantic partner. I didnā€™t understand that there were hormones involved, so after the first couple times I did that in elementary school failed I gave up on the whole idea of dating. Iā€™ve watched my sisters, older and younger, get married and have kids and have what people see as a normal life trajectory. Iā€™ve never felt like I was missing out on anything, though. I have a full life of my own with a job, friends, hobbies, and nieces and nephews that I give all my love to! And if this horrible economy ever gives me the opportunity, my entire life Iā€™ve known itā€™s my calling to adopt or foster, so one day I hope to make that dream come true, to be the light and hope for a child that I needed as a kid.

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Oh yeah, if itā€™s difficult to find gay friendly events, try looking at your libraryā€™s ONLINE event schedule.

In most hateful areas of my state, the library is almost the only safe space for kids to express themselves.

So in those hateful areas, Iā€™ve visited their web site, and there are gay events happening, like a speak easy, but for kids!

The library schedule is also an excellent place to look for Pride Farmer Markets and other gay events.

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Oh boy, I can post without double posting! Well maybe.

So Iā€™ve always lived in the area that liberal and conservatives call home, because I live in an area that is very close to the University of Georgia.

It makes an interesting intersection.
Do a keg stand, and the conservatives will accept you into their pride.

Doing anything creative or genre bending, and the liberals will accept you into their flock.

Iā€™ve taken up the Queer banner, mostly because Iā€™ve never been a fan of gender restrictions.

Oh, and when I was in middle school, two of my (straight) friends were dating. I made a mistake of imagining them making out.

After I was done embarrassing myself, to myself, it feel wrong and like a violation of privacy.

Unfortunately, I feel like and outsider, even at Pride, because I tend to be a social recluse, in real life.

Anyway, Happy (soon to be) Pride, and remember to drink plenty of water if youā€™re doing outdoor activities!

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Good morning and Happy Gay, WrA.

A reminder to use forum tools to ignore and report trolls and otherwise do not engage. Let forum moderators do their work. :hammer:

The only trolls acknowledged here are Darkspears, Zandalari, and hopefully one day Amani.

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