''Gayming Magazine'' is a British, UK-based online LGBTQ video gaming magazine. They are the first video gaming website dedicated to the LGBTQ community.The site was launched in June 2019 with the aim of connecting the LGBTQ and video gaming communities, and has launched virtual

Pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...

events. In 2021, the magazine hosted the world's first LGBTQ+ gaming awards ceremony, Gayming Awards, with the most recent event having taken place in 2022. In September 2021, ''Gayming Magazine'' changed its logo, which moves away from the purely video game-inspired one that launched the magazine in 2019, and updated its mission statement. The logo was developed by queer artist Emma Ensley and will be seen in a multitude of ways as the magazine progresses. After being appointed Deputy Editor in 2019, Aimee Hart now takes on the mantle of Editor-in-Chief, with a mission to drive the magazine forward broadening out from just video games and becoming the home of queer geek culture. ''Gayming Magazine'' are also debuting their event Gayming LIVE Online in 2022, which aims to bring video games, drag artists and queer culture under one virtual roof.

History

''Gayming Magazine'' was revealed at the London Games Festival in April 2019. According to founder Robin Gray, the LGBTQ+ community had been a niche of the video gaming community, and they wanted to celebrate that and bring the two communities closer together. The site was launched in June. In September, the site was nominated for a

Women in Games Women in Games WIGJ is a UK-based community interest company which aims to recruit more women into the video gaming industry and to protect the interests of women in the industry. It was founded in 2009 and originally known as Women in Games Jobs ...

Advocacy award. A live event, Gayming Live, was run between 30 September and 5 October, which featured LGBTQ+ gaming artists and journalists, and writers from Fusebox Games offered writing tips. Within its first year it was reported to have a readership of 17,000. During Summer 2020, ''Gayming Magazine'' hosted DIGIPRIDE 2020, a digital Pride event, emphasising the importance of getting through the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and noting that normal Pride events were being cancelled. The site was nominated for another Women in Games award in September 2020.

Gayming Awards

Gayming Awards 2021

In July 2020, ''Gayming Magazine'' hosted the world's first LGBTQ+ gaming awards ceremony, Gayming Awards. Presented by Electronic Arts (EA), the awards were supported by

The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

. The first ceremony was held virtually in February 2021 and hosted by

Suzi Ruffell Suzi Ruffell (born 18 January 1986) is a British comedian, writer, and actress. Early life Ruffell was born in Portsmouth to a working-class family. Her father buys and sells lorries and her mother became his assistant after raising Suzi and ...

. The panel of judges consisted of more than twenty LGBTQ people, though the public voted on the Best LGBTQ+ Streamer and Gayming Magazine Readers’ Awards categories. Voting took place in November and December 2020, with all games released in 2020 being eligible. The full list of winners of the Gayming Awards 2021 are as follows: * Game of the Year:

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

* Gayming Icon Award:

Robert Yang Robert Yang () is an academic, artist, and indie video game developer, whose work often explores gay subculture and the boundary between video games and art. His work focuses particularly on sociologically deviant and sometimes illegal sexual be ...

* Gayming Magazine Readers' Award:

* Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award: If Found... * Industry Diversity Award:

I Need Diverse Games Tanya DePass, also known by her username Cypheroftyr, is an American journalist, activist and streamer. She is the founder of the non-profit organization I Need Diverse Games, which she established in 2016. Early life DePass grew up in a poor ...

* LGBTQ Streamer of the Year: DEERE * Best LGBTQ Character Award:

Tyler Ronan Tyler Ronan is a fictional character and the co-protagonist of the 2020 episodic narrative adventure game ''Tell Me Why (video game), Tell Me Why'', a three-part narrative video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Xbox Game S ...

- Tell Me Why * Authentic Representation Award: Tell Me Why * Best LGBTQ Narrative Award: If Found... The digital-only ceremony was watched by over 150,000 unique viewers around the world, making it the largest LGBTQ+ event on Twitch over the past year.

Gayming Awards 2022

The Gayming Awards, presented by Twitch, returned in-person in April 2022 and continued to be the first and only global award ceremony celebrating LGBTQ+ video gaming. As before, the ceremony was live streamed on Twitch and IGN and was watched by over 320,000 people in 97 countries around the world. 2022 saw a new LGBTQ+ Streamer Rising Star Award, as well as categories in

Comic Books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

Esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

and

Tabletop Gaming Tabletop may refer to: Mountains *Rangeville,_Queensland#Geography, Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America ...

. The full list of winners of the Gayming Awards 2022 are as follows: * Game of the Year: Life Is Strange: True Colors * Gayming Icon Award:

Tanya DePass Tanya DePass, also known by her username Cypheroftyr, is an American journalist, activist and streamer. She is the founder of the non-profit organization I Need Diverse Games, which she established in 2016. Early life DePass grew up in a poo ...

* Gayming Magazine Readers' Award: Resident Evil Village * Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award:

Unpacking Unpacking may refer to: * Unpacking (linguistics), the separation of the features of a segment into distinct segments * ''Unpacking'' (video game), a 2021 puzzle game * Unpacking (computer science), unpacking programming variables See also * ...

* Industry Diversity Award:

Ukie The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

’s #RaiseTheGame pledge * LGBTQ Streamer of the Year: Aimsey * Best LGBTQ Character Award: Alex Chen, Life Is Strange: True Colors * Authentic Representation Award: Life Is Strange: True Colors * LGBTQ Streamer Rising Star Class of ’22: It’s Me Holly, cruuuunchy, CoderGirlChan, AwkwardishPanda, LuciaEverblack and Luke_Boogie * Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports: Emi “CaptainFluke” Donaldson * LGBTQ Tabletop Game Award: Adventuring With Pride: Queer We Go Again * Best LGBTQ Comic Book Moment: The Pride Omnibus – ComiXology/

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

Returning Gayming Award categories

* Game of the Year - Sponsored by

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

* Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award - Sponsored by EA * Gayming Icon Award - Sponsored by Facebook Gaming * Industry Diversity Award - Sponsored by

Hangar 13 Hangar 13 is an American video game developer based in Novato, California, in the area of the former Hamilton Air Force Base. Established with Haden Blackman in December 2014 as a division of 2K (a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive), t ...

and 2K * Authentic Representation Award - Sponsored by

Marvelous Europe is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, and anime producer. The company was formed in October 2011 by the merger of the original Marvelous Entertainment, AQ Interactive, and Liveware. History The announcement of merging Marvelous En ...

* Best LGBTQ Character Award - Sponsored by

Rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

Studios * Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award - Sponsored by

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

* LGBTQ Streamer of the Year Award - Sponsored by Twitch

New Gayming Award categories for 2022

* LGBTQ Streamer Rising Star Award - Sponsored by Twitch - This award is to celebrate the success of a rising star of LGBTQ streaming. * Best LGBTQ Comic Book Moment - Sponsored by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

Mobile - This award recognises the best LGBTQ moment in a comic book in 2021. * LGBTQ Tabletop Game Award - This award recognises the best tabletop game with LGBTQ themes. * Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports - Sponsored by

Esports Technologies Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional sports, professional players, individually or as ...

- This award recognises the contribution of a person or organisation who has done a significant amount of work in promoting, developing and championing diversity in esports. The 2022 Awards were also supported by: CeX,

Green Man Gaming Green Man Gaming is an eCommerce portal from British-based online video game retailer, distributor and publisher, ''Green Man''. It has gained 4.7 million users since its 2010 release. Business model Green Man Gaming works with companies li ...

, Bandai Namco, Space Ape Games,

UKIE The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

, German Games Industry Association, Out Making Games and London Games Festival.

Gayming LIVE

Gayming LIVE, an event created by Gayming Magazine, is a convention celebrating all things queer geek culture. The event was due to debut in New York City in Summer 2022, however with COVID still presenting a real risk to large scale events, Gayming chose to listen to and protect their community where the appetite for an in person event was not present. Instead, Gayming LIVE is being turned into a fully virtual event, Gayming LIVE Online. The three-day event will play host to game play streams, panel talks, drag performances, celebrity & voice actor virtual meet & greets, exclusive competitions, indie game festival, virtual marketplace, and more. Gayming LIVE Online is headlined by Jiggly Caliente,

Juice Boxx Joseph “Jo” Primeau, better known by the stage name Juice Boxx (born September 20, 1988), is a Canadian drag performer best known for being the first contestant to be eliminated on ''Canada's Drag Race'', the Canadian version of ''RuPaul's D ...

, and

Rock M Sakura Bryan Steven Bradford, better known by the stage name Rock M. Sakura, is an American drag performer most known for competing on the twelfth season of '' RuPaul's Drag Race''. Early life and education Bradford is Filipino and Vietnamese. They we ...

, from '' RuPaul’s Drag Race'', as well as Biqtch Puddin’ and

Erika Klash ''The Boulet Brothers' Dragula'' is an American reality competition television series produced by Boulet Brothers Productions, hosted by the Boulet Brothers. The series originally aired on YouTube and has aired on Netflix in the United States, Ou ...

from '' The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula''. They will be joined by the co-stars and members of the all-drag Twitch stream team, Stream Queens, plus a stellar line up of LGBTQ games voice actors. Supporting Gayming LIVE Online are IRL gaymer groups NYC Gaymers, Geeks Out, GaymerX, Qweerty Gaymers, Boston Gaymers, Houston Gaymers, and Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association, member-led communities of LGBTQIA+ gamers.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

Gayming Magazine to launch in June

Gameindustry.biz Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...

. Published 15 April 2019.
Gayming Magazine bringing queer perspectives to UK newsstands
pcgamesinsider.biz Published 16 April 2019.
Gayming Magazine to host first ever Gayming Awards in February 2021
www.pocketgamer.biz Published 21 July 2020 2019 establishments in the United Kingdom LGBT-related magazines published in the United Kingdom LGBT-related websites LGBT and video games Magazines established in 2019 Online magazines published in the United Kingdom Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom Video game websites