#gfgr

The panelists turned out to be pretty cool.  I was 100% on the side of the adorable bear who’d dressed as a leprechaun and worn a “Hello my name is Paddy O’Furniture” name tag.  Like I know that it’s not even the most creative pun but it made me go “HAH!” when I heard it and I loved it.  

Anyway, it started out basically with a lil blurb by each panelist talking about what queer characters they had played in video games and tabletop RPGs and then was just sort of rundown of different games that have been explicitly LGBTQ-inclusive, a little bit of stuff on how to deal with homophobic gaming groups (this mainly from the contrarian-type person who sensed their discomfort and then said “GUESS WHAT IMA PLAY A GAY GUY”), and then a bit about how to navigate things when you’re a GM and one of your players seems uncomfortable with a “queerer” (for lack of a better word) game world.

(There was a lot of throwing around of words that I have visceral negative reactions to thanks to my exposure to.. well, shitty people... but I figure a little discomfort is OK and honestly there was NO WAY I was going to try to “school” anyone when they clearly weren’t saying things in a context that was inappropriate, and additionally.. like.. I’m not going to be THAT PERSON who tells someone in the group they’re describing that they’re doing it “wrong” or “offensively.”  So obviously I didn’t say a damned thing, it just was one of those little things that made me uncomfy.)

I guess this has been a reminder that I may need to seek out more situations outside my comfort zone, so that the discomfort doesn’t sting quite as much.  I mean, I *THINK* that for the most part, I’m able to  just sit with my discomfort and analyze it later... but I’d like to get a bit more used to it re: social interactions with people who don’t have the same framing of things as I do.  

Does that make sense? IDK