forgotten-queers-event-week

[forgotten-queers-event-week]

hi! i've been checking in every so often since your interest check - are you still planning to do this?

At some point, yes! It's been significantly delayed by a few things (depression kicked back in, job problems, and the cherry on top was the incident where someone here accused me of being aphobic--when I myself am a-spec--which obviously left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth).

What sounds like a good time, do you guys think?

[forgotten-queers-event-week]

In ref to your recent rarepair week survey, you said, "I would argue that they are not actually polyamory, as often as not, just a threesome." What IS the difference? I thought threesomes WERE a form of polyamory. Or do you mean, like, 'threesome is a triangle and have more than two, but POLYamory is more than even that because a threesome is its own thing' kind of way?

Threesomes can be polyamory, but the word threesome is by and large used to refer to a sexual act.

A married couple inviting a third to their bed for a night and never seeing each other again is a threesome, but it's not polyamory.

A triad where only two people are having sex, and the third is a sex-repulsed ace, is polyamory! But it's not threesomes.

A triad where all three sleep together is both polyamory and a recurring threesome.

Usage of these terms isn't entirely consistent on all platforms and in all communities, but this is what I was trying to say when explaining why the popularity of threesomes in Star Wars fic isn't actually polyamorous representation.

[forgotten-queers-event-week]

So… if I wanted to participate, I wouldn’t have to do all days, right? I’m not sure I get what polyamory is, truly. And I really, really don’t get queer platonic relationships because everything I’ve heard about them is either close friendships or romance without the label. I’ve also heard people say that there’s things in queer platonic relationships that don’t exist in romantic relationships, and all the happily married couples in my life (and those are mostly m/f) have those things. I’ve been told I may be aro spectrum because I don’t get what makes romance a romance but meh, I like my marriage the way it is. Point is that I don’t think I could write a queer platonic relationship if I tried.

…I also probably shouldn’t be taking on more than three days with all the projects I’m already working on but I definitely want to do some.

Hey anon! Sounds like you don't have much experience with fandom events. Here's some general guidelines:

You don't have to do something for every day/every prompt! I tend to, because I'm a completionist, but it's completely fine to just do one or two days (unless otherwise stated; some events have special requirements).

Polyamory is a term encompassing romantic or sexual relationships that involve three or more people in some way (without cheating). This can take a lot of forms, like: - three people dating each other - A is dating B, and B is dating C, but A and C have incompatible sexualities so they aren't dating each other - something a bit more complicated, like A dating but not sleeping with B, and B sleeping with but not dating C, because A is asexual and C is aromantic, and this works for all three of them because A and C are good friends - honestly just any romantic/sexual dynamic that involves three people with full consent and no infidelity (seriously: no cheating)

Queer platonic partnerships are ambiguous to a lot of people. If you aren't ace/aro spectrum, it might be difficult to get your head around. It's the idea of forming a relationship with a person that has all the importance of a traditional marriage, but without the romantic elements. If you love someone as a friend, to the point of marrying them, but never in a manner that is romantic or sexual, that's qpp. There are other forms, but this is the easiest shape of this relationship to hold up as an example, I think. If you aren't sure what a queer platonic relationship encompasses, I would maybe refrain from engaging with this prompt, but it sounds like your lived experience may match up pretty closely!

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The Queers They Forgot to Tell You About - Prompts Survey

I have a rough set of prompts in mind, but we have wiggle room. Let me know if something could use adjusting!

Day 1: transgender

Day 2: ace and aro spectrums

Day 3: “it may be M/F, but it's still queer”

Day 4: nonbinary, genderqueer, and GNC

Day 5: polyamory

Day 6: queer platonic partnerships

Day 7: free choice

Day 7 alt: could be 'intersex’, but I know there’s some debate from intersex individuals about whether they want to be lumped in with the queer community, so I’d like feedback on that one first

Survey Here

[forgotten-queers-event-week]

Hey folks! Took a bit for me to get back around to this; I got a new job and then a rarepair week hit, but I'm back!

The interest check survey got 46 responses, and 36 of those were people indicating they would be interested in participating.

I'm going to answer a few of the questions I got in the final section, and I'll make a post with general information later today.

Questions and concerns presented in the interest check survey:

Does the work have to be posted on tumblr or can it be posted somewhere else?

I will be making an AO3 collection, so people will be able to post there as well. If you do not have a tumblr, I will reblog here to the event blog.

some hesitation about poly just from the number of threesome fics in fandom already - obianidala, bailbrehaobi, codexwan, etc. not entirely sure there's any solution for that, however, and it would be good to see less straight (hah) triad works

While Star Wars does have a relatively high amount of threesomes, I would argue that they are not actually polyamory, as often as not, just a threesome. It's also a fairly small fraction of the overall whole; Star Wars is just so big that even that small fraction feels like a lot.

I intend to keep the polyamory prompt.

Just general interest about the details of the event- dates, additional rules, etc. I like the overall concept but don’t particularly want to end up in a fandom war by accident (just a general Star Wars fandom observation, not an accusation of those proposing the event)

I will be addressing this later today! The primary rules will be no bashing, tag appropriately, and keep the prompts and theme in mind when writing.

I probably won't be able to do much creating until like may cause grad school is eating my brain

We are currently looking at late June.

day 3 might be better phrased as bisexual or bicurious?

Nope! Day three “it may be M/F, but that doesn’t make it straight” is meant to touch on all those 'straight couples' that get flack at pride parades, even though:

One or both is bi or pan

One or both is trans

One or both is ace/aro

Any variation that is not cishet, honestly

If I adjust phrasing, it will be to “it may be M/F, but that doesn’t make it cishet”

I'm gay but don't really relate to the other categories so I'm not sure how I'd participate without taking away the voices of others or creating for an experience that is not my own.

Create away! You don't need to be writing about the dark and heavy vagaries of a queer existence; a sketch of a character waving a pride flag counts!

If you do want to work on something that is heavy or more complicated, there are plenty of queer people in fandom. You can probably find someone willing to help you brainstorm or look it over for major red flags.

With the event centered around queer characters - and I assume mostly being participated in by queer creators - I think it would be a good idea to have it in the event rules that aphobia/transphobia/etc must be tagged in fics. I'd also like to know if it's canon-only or if OCs would be allowed too, since that wasn't mentioned in the post. Either way, the idea sounds great and I'd love to participate.

Noted! Proper tagging etiquette is a big deal to me, and while I will allow wiggle room (e.g. if a person thinks it may bloat their tags to include everything, they can go with 'see author's note for warnings' and I will consider it due diligence), including proper warnings is a big deal.

I hadn't thought about OCs yet, but my instinct is that they can be included.

“Ace and aro spectrums” rather than “ace and aro spectrum (singular)” would be better since they are separate identities that don’t always overlap.

A good point! I'll adjust, going forward.

You had me at an ace day 🥺 also idk if I'd be able to participate in writing (deadlines for other projects in abroad for the first two weeks in June) but i would DEFINITELY consume content!!

As mentioned a little further up, we are now looking at late June.

This is an extremely weird thing to put in this box, but my friend sent the post about this challenge to me all pissy because "I don't know why poly people would be on here ahead of regular gay men and lesbians", and it made me, a genderfluid bi ace person, almost blind with rage. Thank you for making a space that specifically opens doors to identities that are less inherently known and understood in real life.

Absolutely baffling take from your friend, considering the theme is 'the queers we don't talk about,' so the entire point is to talk about stuff that is... not 'regular' gay men and lesbians. That. That's a bit of a red flag, oof.

I'm glad you're excited!

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The Queers They Forgot to Tell You About - Interest Check

Interest Check Survey

Time for another event week! I'd like an event that focuses on queer headcanons that often get buried under the 'easier' kinds, just encourage creation of art and fic that grows that part of fandom a bit more than usual.

I know there is an existing Star Wars Queer event week, @star-queers. I unfortunately didn't find out about it until the event was already over, and I'm going to try to avoid stepping on their toes by pushing out a few months.

No dates set yet, but I'm considering June for now. The tentative themes would be the following (I'll ask for a response form later in case anyone has ideas):

Day 1: transgender

Day 2: ace and aro spectrum

Day 3: “it may be M/F, but that doesn’t make it straight”

Day 4: nonbinary, genderqueer, and GNC

Day 5: polyamory

Day 6: queer platonic partnerships

Day 7: free choice (Day 7 could possibly be 'intersex', but I know there's some debate from intersex individuals about whether they want to be lumped in with the queer community, so I'd like feedback on that one first)

The themes are obviously very broad, and intended to be. A lot of fanfiction tends to focus on strictly gay, or bisexual-in-same-sex-relationship, characters, and that's great! But I want to see about promoting those of us that get left a bit behind when it comes to representation within the community. Given the state of Star Wars canon, this would primarily be about reinterpretations and AUs of characters, rather than canon queers, since there are so few.

For those that are unfamiliar with fandom event weeks, the idea is to prepare fanworks, like fic, art, and gifsets, for each day of the event, and then post on the set date. You don't have to do each day, and you can do more than one for any given day, you just have to stick to the theme.

Interest Check Survey