GeekGirlCon Statement
On our blog, GeekGirlCon embedded a YouTube video from one of our panelists that was meant to describe, from her own view, what it means to be a “geek girl.”
Unfortunately, we did not clearly hear the beginning of the video, which made a remark that excluded transgendered people from the conversation. Once members of our community raised their concerns, we re-watched the video and removed it from our blog as it did not reflect our mission statement.
GeekGirlCon was created because we wanted to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive place for all geeks. We still live by this creed every day. All ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, sexual preferences, sizes, abilities, ethnicities, nationalities, races, creeds, religions, familial statuses, etc., are welcome. Our core beliefs also state that both “geek” and “female” are self-identified.
We think it is incredibly important to have a dialogue about people who are misrepresented, under-represented, or not represented at all in geek culture. We both attempt to be proactive and rely on our community to bring these conversations to our attention. To those who watched the video, we are deeply sorry about the pain inflicted from these remarks. Thank you for raising your concerns.
If you’d like to contact us to continue this conversation, please feel free to comment or email us at info@geekgirlcon.com.
Thank for issuing this statement, for listening to concerns raised by trans women who wish to be a part of the GeekGirlCon experience, and for empathizing with the legitimate sense of discomfort at having our lives used as punchline for someone’s yuk-yuk skit. I’m heartened that you so quickly and unequivocally addressed the situation. Thank you.
Bravo! It’s one thing to support transgendered people in a mission statement. It’s quite another to take this kind of stand to support transgendered community.
Thank you!
I’m glad you did the right thing here!
Love and Solidarity.