[image description: a photo of Joey Stern lifting a person from the shoulders and knees. Joey’s mouth is open as if yelling. The other person is smiling with wide eyes. Behind them is a multi-coloured (but not rainbow) banner saying “Geeks Out”. There is a table behind them with someone sitting at it with their back to the camera, and in front of them is another table. To the side is a rainbow flag and a poster for “Mutant High Prom”]
This past weekend Ellie and I attended C2E2, a giant comic con in Chicago. We also took a little time out of our own nerdery to visit Geeks Out and talk to Joey Stern (pictured saving another member from a fate worse then death!) about queer comics, nerds getting together, and making bisexuals feel welcome in their organization.
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Sarah : Tell us a little bit about your organization, Geeks Out.
Joey : It started at the New York Comic Con in 2011. There was a panel there on queer independent comics, like independent of regular mainstream artists and it was a mess! And the room is full, like a big room, totally packed. And it was like there’s not enough happening here for the audience that exists. So our goal was from that moment that we were gonna come to comic con next year and have a booth at comic con where we would gather and have artists talk about their experiences. And make a space that feels safer for queer geeks.
And now we’ve come back, we’ve done that at comic con two years in a row and we’ve come out to Chicago as well. We’re getting it off the ground in Chicago and then push those out all over the place.
Our next big initiative is getting people to skip Ender’s Game this year. And really highlight the homophobia of the author, making sure people know when you go to see that, you’re supporting someone who is on the National Organization for Marriage’s website, and part of the board and pushing legislation through that will get us to lose rights.
And so we exist as a methodology and as a place for geeks queer to know that there are other people out there. And to really push the idea in this culture that it’s not just about straight white guys. There’s a broad spectrum and we are a part of that. There needs to be an acknowledgement of that. Of “this is why this is offensive and this is why this is not okay”.
Sarah : Can you talk a little bit about what your group does for queer people all across the rainbow as far as encouraging them to come to cons, to do comics, to make comics, as well as your artists that are signing here this weekend?
Joey : So a big part of it for Geeks Out is we had this big event called Dream Weaver where we had 40 artists drew depictions of Sigourney Weaver as a queer geek icon as someone we look up to as a queer icon and someone we look up to and acknowledge as a sex symbol and also as someone who has portrayed interesting and powerful women in her career. And has done a really good job of that.
And part of that is just the idea of exposing people to the idea of comic art as being real art and exposing gays to the idea. Here are stories that are about you, that you can relate to or that can be a real heartwarming story. You can look at her and be like ‘I like that there is a powerful woman doing stuff and existing in this world and fighting amongst the boys. And those things are important and those things are valid stories in the same way that like watching Buffy is interesting. Or when gay men talk about a diva that they love, to hold [this] up and say ‘you know Dazzler’s in this, you need to know about Dazzler!’.
These are things that are important stories and are part of the culture we exist in. And are a cultural experience you should feel like you can be a part of, if you want to. Obviously not everybody is going to like everything, but it’s good to feel like you’re not segregated or ghettoized into a separate area. We have [artists] who’ve been part of this for years and years and years and we can bring them to a con, bring them to a booth and show people as they stop by today a different kind of comic. Like here is two men holding hands, talking about marriage and love.
Or here is, we have ‘The Boy in the Pink Earmuffs’ here and Jason - who designed our shirts - his comic book, his webcomic is about this kid and his boyfriend. And it’s the first kind of young kind of love oriented comics. And it’s like cute and it’s just adorable. And you can quick get a laugh. And we can give them that. It’s a discussion that you can’t have on television, that you can’t have this depicted someplace else. You need someone who is willing to write this and put it out there and you need to come into it and have that conversation. And it’s cool to be part of that.
Sarah : You talked about skipping the Ender’s Game. You guys are also sponsoring some kind of dance tonight?
Joey : Yes! We’re sponsoring a big queer mutant prom, well it’s 21 and up so a big queer drunken prom. We’re going to crown a king and queen based upon their costume outfits - cosplay. And we’re going to be gathering together, dancing, and just being in a friendly environment. What’s nice about a Geeks Out event, what makes it really different from a lot of other bar nights is that it’s not like people don’t hook up or there isn’t that kind of thing, but it’s the first time you’re in a gay bar and you’re like ‘I hate the outfit they have Catwoman in now, I don’t understand it, I don’t like it,’ then there’s gonna be someone else who is like ‘I know! And here’s this other thing I hate!’ You can talk about the comics and the books that you love and the books you’re reading and pop culture things that you like and ideas for what they really should be doing different with whatever!
And that’s a very different experience. There is the sexual element in the sense that all things can have that, but it’s a very different bar night that doesn’t force you to sort of closet this aspect of your enjoyment or the way that you see the world. In fact it encourages that openness.
Sarah : That’s great. Now, we approach a lot of queer spaces as bisexual people saying that sometimes we feel like if we appear heterosexually partnered you get pushed off like ‘hey you go hang out with the straight people’ and if you [appear] queer partnered then you get pushed off to ‘we can let you in as long as you pretend to be gay/lesbian. Would you say that your organization is bisexual friendly?
Joey : I think so. I mean one of the things that makes Geeks Out better at than some of the other places in this area is that we are as much as something can be gender-neutral, we are that. We are not an organization that exists as a male-focused or a female-focused. We’ve got a wide variety and diversity to our membership as men and women, and so at our events you have men and women.
I mean, if you have someone attending and they’re bisexual and bringing their male or female partner, there’s not going to be like a real clear deviation like ‘this is a group of women and you have brought a man’. Or this is a group full of men and you have brought a woman. Like you’re going to have a wide variety.
And we have our straight allies, we have members of it, we have people who are in straight relationships even if they identify as bisexual. We have people who do identify as straight. It’s a much more welcoming environment in that way.
Ellie : What other kind of events do you have? Like, outside of the con?
Joey : So, throughout the year we do a bunch of different things. We go to movies, we attend screenings of things, we’ve gone to plays when there’s been one. We have a couple of big game events soon that are going to take place in…. May? Sometime in May. Where we’re partnering with AP game groups so people can hang out. We’ve done the trivia nights, kinda just fun outdoor activities, we’re gonna plan a beach day at some point. So a wide variety, we try to do a big swath of things so that multiple ages can attend. It’s of course hard because a lot of the gathering places that exist are 21 and up.
But we try to get in a few things, like we’re all going to go see this movie together then afterwards we can go to this club. We’re gonna go to this comic book shop, we’re gonna hang out here and stuff.
Sarah : Excellent. Well thank you for taking time to talk to us!
Joey : Thank you both and enjoy the rest of your con!
