Queerly Gen

First off, my apologies for the relative radio silence of late. I had some RL distractions and didn't get organized enough to get anything in motion here or enlist one of my co-mods to do it.

Now it's a new year, I'm guessing that people who participated in holiday challenges have recuperated, and a couple of kind souls have gifted the community with paid time! (Which reminds me: I'm a total DW novice -- what are the neat things we can/should do with said paid time?) All in all, I think it's an excellent time to get more active at this community.

So, what would you like to see here? One idea I had was borrowing the flashwork challenge model, where community members suggest themes which then go up for a limited time. So, for example, someone might suggest the theme "reinventing the wheel," and everyone would then have three weeks to post queerly gen works around that theme. Anyone in favor? Are there other approaches you'd like us to try? Would you like to see any kind of recurring moderated discussions? Remember, there's no reason we can't mix and match a bunch of ideas-- whatever appeals to y'all as community members is likely to work out well.

While we're discussing this, I'd also like to encourage everyone to repost any queerly gen works you may have created recently, or rec anything you may have encountered. Yuletide alone had 2,779 works (wow!), so I know there's got to be some great stuff that a lot of us haven't found yet.

 There'll probably be a couple more discussion posts coming up about the operational aspects (particularly the tagging system), but I wanted to get to the biggest question I've got:

How do you want this community to work?

First off, while I initially created queerlygen with a festival in mind, I'm hearing a lot of interest in having it provide a continuing resource. I've got no problems with that. Right now my intent is, at minimum, to have the community act as an ongoing noticeboard where people can post gen works (both fan and original) about sexual and gender minorities. But what should it be beyond that?

• Should we have some kind of periodic challenges? If so, what would you be interested in?
• Are there specific ways to encourage the posting of works beyond just fiction?
• Are there things that have worked well at other communities that you'd like to see replicated here?
• Most pressingly, how should we kick the community off? I'd originally talked about a festival: should I just throw open the doors for people to post any works? Should there be a structure of some kind? Maybe prizes for people who post the most works / in the widest range of 'verses / in the widest range of media? 

Of the discussion posts I've put up so far, this is probably where I have the least idea of how to proceed. So please, bring on any and all suggestions, as vague or as specific as you like.

This'll be the first of several discussion posts while I get things organized here at the comm. They're a way for me to let you know how my thoughts are running, to get your input and suggestions, and to give you all some lead-time to start thinking about works you might want to make for the festival.


For the purposes of the community, these are the definitions I'm considering:

Sexual minority: someone whose sexual preferences are considered nontraditional, marginalized, or marked. Examples of sexual minorities include, but are not limited to, people who identify as:

• homosexual, gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, questioning, kinky, poly, fetishists, BDSM practitioners

Gender minority: someone whose gender identity and/or physically embodied sex do not conform to cultural norms of "maleness" or "femaleness," or whose gender identities and bodies do not align in ways that conform to those cultural norms. Examples of gender* minorities include, but are not limited to, people who identify as:

• transgendered, transsexual, genderqueer, intersexed, androgynous

* ETA: fixed a typo.

For works posted to this community, a character's sexual or gender minority status will be determined at the judgment of the work's creator. If a creator portrays a character as a sexual or gender minority for the purposes of a given work (and the works fits the community definition of gen), that work may be posted to this community. 


I'd really like your thoughts on these definitions. Is there a better way to word them? Do the general definitions (not the example lists) currently seem to exclude identities you believe should be included? Are you unsure why I've chosen to define things this way? 

Three things I'd like to remind everyone, before the discussion starts:

1. These definitions are intended to be functional and useful for this community. I'm not proposing them as universals that everyone should accept, just guidelines that will help people develop, post, and enjoy works in this space.
2. Because the definitions are meant to be for the purpose of this community, I'd like to avoid discussions of "correct/universal" definitions or attempts to set exhaustive/exclusive lists of which identities qualify as sexual or gender minorities. While interesting and valuable, those discussions can tend to bleed over into border policing in a way I want to avoid in this space. As stated before, I strongly prefer inclusivity and intend to run the comm with that in mind. 
3. For every identity listed above and all the others that fit under the umbrellas of these definitions, there is likely someone reading the community posts who would claim that identity. To the best of my abilities, I've been choosing my words consciously and with respect, and I hope you'll all do the same. 

Thanks, and I look forward to your thoughts.


ETA #1: Clarifying "sexual minorities." There've been some really great comments to this post so far, and here's the gist of what I'm getting from them: ( summary of discussion and a revised definition for you to consider. )Do you think these changes address the concerns and suggestions below? Any new thoughts or ideas?


ETA #2: Asexuality; sex work. There are a couple more issues where the discussion's still ongoing and I'm on the fence myself. One is how to represent "asexuality" in the definition, as it's an orientation in itself but can also coexist with identification as queer, straight, bi, etc. Some people have recommended I rephrase the first bullet as "sexual orientation;" others have recommended I give asexuality its own bullet. 

The second issue is inclusion of sex workers on the list of sexual minority identities. Some people are really excited about the overt inclusion of sex workers in this comm, but there's also been a question raised about the fit of including a practice-based identity in a list of identities that people often experience as inherent to themselves. I remain on the fence about this, though I'd like to stress that either way, you're welcome to include sex workers in the works you post here -- what's undecided is whether the presence of a sex worker, in a work otherwise lacking sexual or gender minorities (and where the character engaged in sex work otherwise does not identify as a sexual or gender minority), will qualify a work for inclusion on this comm.

Anyone have more to add here? So far, this has been an amazingly respectful discussion, and I look forward to seeing it continue in that vein.