PAX East – Gayming with Pride: A Discussion of How Pride Month Has Been Celebrated in Games

PAX East has several panels this year dedicated to inclusion in the world of gaming. Some such panels have been put together by the Boston Gaymers, a group dedicated to helping LTBTQ+ people find connections and acceptance through gaming. Today, they hosted a panel about how Pride Month is celebrated in video games.

PAX East and the Boston Gaymers

The Boston Gaymers are, according to their official site, “a social group for LGBTQIA+ gamers in the greater Boston area to help find and make new friends in a safe and welcoming environment.” Yesterday, they hosted a panel about trans representation in the gaming world. According to the PAX East official site, today’s Pride Month panel discusses “how games have celebrated Pride, both the good and the bad, and how they have allowed us to express ourselves and show our pride in games.”

The Panelists

The panelists include Matthew Vincent, the president of the Boston Gaymers, Chris Chedrawi, a writer and content creator, Lydia Jefferson, a graduate student, Safiyyah Guzman, an artist, voice actor, and background bouncer. The variety of panelists shows how the panel is interested in hearing many different voices. A variety of voices lets the audience see how pride means different things to different people.

LTBTQ+ Representation in Gaming

Hatred and marginalization of LTBTQ+ people has been on the rise lately, which makes representation more important than ever. PAX East aims to help make all groups more visible in the gaming world. While LTBTQ+ characters have been semi-prominent in indie games for years, mainstream games took a while to include LTBTQ+ inclusion in America that wasn’t censored out. Panels like this one let people know that LTBTQ+ people will not go back to being censored. Pride in games shows that LTBTQ+ are real, we have lives, and we are not going anywhere.