Heartbond (APG), artist Valeriya Lutfullina

June is Pride Month, a time for the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate their lives, their struggles, and their identities. It’s also a time to remind ourselves and those around us that the fight for equality is not over. The first Pride celebrations were inspired by the Stonewall riots, a six-day riot against police brutality, led by community leaders including Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman.

Pride is important because LGBTQ+ individuals do not have equality in any country. The Human Rights Watch reports that 69 countries have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults. At least nine countries have laws criminalizing “forms of gender expression that target transgender and gender nonconforming people,” and many more countries don’t need to pass laws to ensure their police forces and militaries do the work of suppressing LGBTQ+ lives. Worldwide, gay, trans and non-conforming individuals face legal and illegal discrimination, abuse, and hatred. There are places in this world I will not travel with my fiancé because I am worried we will face physical and verbal abuse, and some of those places are within driving distance of where I live. Here in America, my rights are debated on a daily basis in local, state and federal court.

My fellow contributors to this blog and I are lucky that many of us live in a country that will not arrest us, directly, in most places, for our sexuality or gender. We are lucky that Paizo is a company that does not discourage us from expressing ourselves in our personal lives, and that permits us to create beautiful and diverse worlds that represent the world as we would like to see it. But we are lucky, and every gamer knows that sometimes the dice run hot, and sometimes you roll a 1. None of that is guaranteed to us, and it could be taken away in moments - or slowly, over four years.

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I started with the depressing stuff not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t want it to get lost. But that’s not all of what Pride is. Pride is also about joy in who we are, and in our community. It’s about gathering and celebrating our lives, the freedoms we have fought to achieve, and to remind ourselves that it is all worth it.

For this year’s Pride blog, I asked our staffers and contributors to tell us about something they’re proud of from the past year. I told them that it didn’t have to be gaming related; that, in fact, this was a chance to use the platform we’re lucky to have to shout out the things that don’t get attention. I’d like to thank them all for sharing themselves with me and with the Paizo community.

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

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Alexander Augunas, Paizo Freelancer

I'm Alexander Augunas! I'm the Know Direction Network's Everyman Gamer, publisher of Everybody Games, and a freelancer for Paizo Inc. This past year has been a crazy year for us all, but I like to think that I did some good work during the chaos and confusion of the global shutdown. In Lost Omens: Legends, I presented Golarion's most powerful sorceress, Hao Jin (set to appear in the upcoming Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path) as an asexual woman whose experiences with asexuality I personally identify with, a prospect that I felt was one of the most deeply empowering and important RPG articles I have ever written. Second only, perhaps, to The Rot in RPGs, a blog article I did for the Know Direction Network where I analyzed how systemic racism has impacted tabletop RPGs and offered some suggestions on what we as a community should do to combat it. It's a deeply researched piece that I wrote in response to the murder of George Floyd, and it's an article I hope inspires gamers to keep doing better as a community for those who are marginalized. Because I truly believe that if we try, we can change. Games have that kind of power, and I firmly believe that as creators we have the responsibility to use our power to better the world we've inherited.

Sonja Morris (she/her), Managing Art Director

On June 15th, my wife and I celebrated 19 years of marriage (21 years of being together), of which I am very proud.

Carlos Cabrera, Paizo Freelancer

The thing I am most proud of this year is somehow finding a better work and life balance over the course of it. I know this time has been hard for so many of us, but what I discovered about myself getting through it is where my healthier boundaries are and how to lay them down more confidently. When my pandemic fatigue set in, I signed up for the Moderna trial. When I had to make big, life-altering changes at home, I found a place where I can still be a part of my incredible 4 year old's life.

I am proud I was able to do all of that on my own terms. Creatively, this has led me down new paths of freelancing. I have a coming project I can't wait to tell people more about—my first ever built and pitched privately with the help of a new friend. I am also planning a return to voice acting. There is a lot to look forward to, but you know what also helped a great deal? My partners of more than one gender who made it a point (in a pandemic!) to be in my company.

Hao Jin, artist Gabriela Marchioro

Shay Snow (they/them), Paizo Freelancer

I’m super proud that I’ve pushed myself this year to accept projects that I would normally shy away from. I’ve spent a long time turning things down because of a deep fear of being under qualified or just the belief that I wouldn’t be good enough when compared to other people who came before me. This year has been a rollercoaster ride, but I can look back at it and actively point out my victories and places where I’ve excelled and grown as a person. My partner, my friends, and I have watched me break out of my comfort zone and restore my self-confidence in not just my writing and editing skills, but also in myself and my ability to handle large projects. I look forward to another year of accepting things and showing not just other people, but showing myself that I can handle anything thrown my way.

James Jacobs, Pathfinder Creative Director

Writing adventures about ghosts and cultists and things that go bump in the night has long been something I’ve enjoyed, but with Malevolence, an adventure I ran for several folks here at the office last year before writing it up as a standalone adventure for Pathfinder, I finally got to create that haunted house adventure I’ve been eager to write. Several of the spooky, creepy events and encounters that I inflicted on my players made it into the adventure, along with a few that I had planned but they never reached and a few more that I made up specifically for the adventure. The in-depth mechanics for how players can unravel the manor’s mystery by researching, investigating, and interpreting haunted dreams is one of my favorite parts of the adventure, and I can’t mention the other favorite part without spoiling something big. Still, it’s exciting to get Malevolence out into the world after it spent a few extra months in shipping delay hell, and I hope it does as good a job providing your group with a bit of escape from the horrors of the past year as it did for me to write it.

Amber Stewart (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

It has been a really awesome year for me, and I’m super proud of not only having my first AP entry released with Ruins of the Radiant Siege (in which I’m thrilled to have included an explicitly trans NPC Il’setsya Wyrmtouched) but for also finally, FINALLY finishing with school and receiving my doctorate (Doctor of Pharmacy). I hope that this next year can be just as great and even more productive!

Dr Monsylkis artist Graey Erb

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

Hey, all! I'm bi and demisexual, and I've been freelancing for Paizo for a few years. It's been a tough year, globally speaking, but I hit a few personal milestones that I'm proud of, the release of my first AP volume (The White Glove Affair) being one of them. What I'm focusing on here, though, is a little more mundane: I've been talking to people.

I'm not a very outgoing person, which has always made networking intimidating to me. I'd talked to people off and on at PaizoCon, but until recently, I hadn't really gotten to know anyone in the freelancing community too well. With the con's shift to being online, though, I was more comfortable casually chatting. After that, staying in touch with other freelancers seemed to flow naturally, and before I knew it, I was in a community of talented writers and fun people, some of whom I now count as friends as well as colleagues. I look forward to meeting them once in-person cons are safe again! And...well, maybe you'll see me hanging out at the hotel bar next PaizoCon. I promise not to flee if you come say hi. :-)

Dana Ebert (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

Hi there, I’m a Paizo freelancer and am proudly BIPOC, queer, and transgender! I do other things as well, including professional GMing and voice acting. Without a doubt, my proudest accomplishment this past year was nailing my first freelancing assignment with Paizo. It’s no secret that the book in question is Pathfinder Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar, and while I can’t spoil any of its content, I think I can share that in the end I was able to write something deeply personal that I hope will resonate just as powerfully with other people who share similar experiences. In fact, I’m definitely going to be talking about it on Twitter once the book is released, so if that sounds interesting then you can follow me there at @MistressDanaRPG. Until next time, endless love and support for each and every one of you who help to make our community a more inclusive, diverse, and welcoming place!

Dustin Knight (he/him), Paizo Freelancer

The word I've used to describe this last year has been surreal. I'd repeat again and again: survive, not thrive. And yet, I struggled every day to do something I could be proud of, even if it meant fighting to convince myself that I deserved to rest. But even as I write this, I find myself pondering what it means to feel pride. It's tempting to drop names and links in some hackneyed attempt to avoid today's undertaking, but it's one I've avoided for too many years. Today I'm proud to publicly identify as asexual.

And yet, I can't help but feel like I'm still avoiding the prompt. So I've got to admit what I'm most proud of this surreal year has been my career. I've passed so many milestones it's hard to believe any of this is real. Most surreal of all was having aced the Paizo design test last fall. Proving myself in that capacity and then getting my first hardcover book assignment has been a validating experience unlike any other. So many friends have helped me on this journey, and this year I hope I've made them proud. Thank you, my dear friends. And thank you, Paizo.

Last year we posted Paizo Wishes Everyone a Happy Pride Month! in which we asked our staff and contributors to “share some of their experiences being nerdy and queer.” This year we have a fresh update!

Jim Butler, VP of Marketing and Licensing

Growing up in Wyoming in the 70s and 80s, Pride was a distant thing to me; something I’d see on the news a few times a year. When I joined TSR in 1994, I finally had the opportunity to attend Pride events in Milwaukee and Chicago and slowly start to understand more about who I was. Boystown in Chicago and Club 94 near Lake Geneva were glorious and electrifying, and I was like a wide-eyed kid marveling at every sight and sound.

I came out to friends and co-workers by chance after getting beaten up by my first boyfriend. I arrived at work shaking and angry, not realizing I had blood all over my face and arms. Lorraine Williams (TSR’s owner) and Carol Hubbard (head of HR) grabbed a first aid kit and gently patched me up as I explained how my roommate beat me up. My friends instantly knew something else. Sean Reynolds, David Eckelberry, and Dori Hein helped me through a pretty terrifying time and made coming out to the world easier through their acceptance and encouragement.

Weeks later TSR would be purchased by Wizards of the Coast and Peter Adkison, Lisa Stevens, and others ushered in a wild new work environment. Peter gathered the TSR crew together and explained the new working environment of WotC, with LGBTQIA+, Goth, Satanists, and more all working in harmony. “What if my religion doesn’t allow me to work with those people?” a TSR staffer asked. Without missing a beat, Peter said “Then you should definitely not accept the job offer to relocate to Seattle.” You could hear a pin drop…

Lisa Stevens has continued that positive work environment through Paizo, and as Pride shines forth again I look back on all that has happened in my life and see the steady march of progress. Happy Pride!

Carlos Cabrera

"Hi everyone! My name is Carlos Cabrera. I have freelanced for several third party publishers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as well as with Paizo themselves. I am 37 years old, and I have been out as bisexual since my senior year of high school. Even before I achieved my goal of becoming a game designer, I had the honor of others in the gaming community not only welcome me, but follow in the footsteps of my coming out experience with experiences of their very own.

I have the Cape and Islands Gay Straight Youth Alliance (or CIGSYA House) to thank for providing me with a safe space when I didn't know I needed it. What I also didn't realize—until I was much older—was how large of an overlap these two communities really had. They are very much my people, and in more ways than one. I couldn't ask to be in a better crowd."

Sasha Laranoa Harving, Venture-Lieutenant and Contributor
she/her/hers/herself or nov/nov/novs/novself

“I think it's safe to say that RPGs have cracked my shell several times over. I've never played a male character, even before I really let myself know I wasn't a man. Starfinder's solarians gave me the grounds to explore my personal brand of nonbinary, and developing relationships bound beyond romance and rooted in a shared narrative showed me how, while I still experience it, it's not all there is.

I love my work and my community. I'm proud to throw my voice to the sky when I need to be heard. And for anyone questioning if you might want to explore who you could be through RPGs... I believe in you.”

Vanessa Hoskins

“The first Pride was a riot. It was a screaming and violent stand against the forces of oppression that sought to impose conformity and silence. Those forces of oppression continue to fight us, continue to silence us, and continue working to enforce their will on us. But we will not be silent. We will not hide in the shadows. We are out. We are proud. We are celebrating who we are. The very act of public celebration is defiance against our oppressors. The very act of love we share builds up our communities. Every example of self expression shows the world that we will not fade away.

Pride is taking a stand for who we are, who we love, and making no apologies for it. Through celebration we win. Through self expression we win. Through love we win. The oppressed stand together against our oppressors, expressing our differences and embracing each other for it. The more we love ourselves, the more we support each other, and the more we remain true to who we are, the harder it is for the forces of oppression to succeed.

They lash out in violence against our peace. They scream slurs against our celebrations. They react with hate against our love. But that just means they will lose, for love conquers hate. But love doesn't mean we are meak. Love doesn't mean we are helpless. We too, can be violent. It's not what we want, but it's what we will do to survive. We will fight back. We will take a stand. We will maintain our way of life. Pride comes from love: from loving ourselves, from loving each other, from loving our communities. That does not mean we won't fight to defend that love. The first Pride was a riot.”

James Jacobs

“I’m James Jacobs, Creative Director of Pathfinder, and last year I wrote about how playing RPGs over the years helped me realize I was bisexual. I also wrote, “Our world is scary, and that makes RPGs so important to me.” Here we are a year later, and the world has changed so much that it feels naive to have written those words only a dozen months ago. But that doesn’t change the fact that RPGs can remain an important way for us all to get together and game, share our experiences, and support each other, even if… ESPECIALLY if… we’re doing so virtually instead of in-person. Pride in ourselves and who we are is more important than ever—which is, I suppose, a way of saying it’s more important with each passing day. So give your friends hugs, do what you can to safely support your communities and to be secure, love and be loved, and hold your heads high!”

Samantha Phelan

“As an undergraduate cultural anthropology student, I conducted the majority of my class research on issues of gender in gaming subcultures. During a project that aimed to ethnographically explore the experience of self-identified “girl gamers,” I was conducting an interview with a research participant in which we discussed her origins in gaming. She explained that she first started playing online pet-sites, in which she got so intensely competitive that she was setting alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to perform tasks in the game just for an extra edge. Part way though her explanation she asked, “Wait, does this count?”

Perplexed, I asked her, “Why wouldn’t that count?”

Her answer left a profound impact on me as an anthropologist and gamer: “Because mostly girls play those.”

I analyzed that statement a million ways, but I think it bothered me so much because I realized that a lot of the identity questions I was exploring in gender and gaming came down to that question: do we count? Getting to be a part of the gaming industry myself now, I constantly think of my own identity and all those individuals who talked to me about their experience in gaming subcultures. I hope to always be a part of projects that constantly reinforce that yes, you do count.”

Kendra Leigh Speedling

“Hi, everyone! I'm a freelance writer who's worked on Paizo projects for Pathfinder 1E, 2E, and Starfinder, including SFS #2-08: The Stumbling Society, Part 2: Sangoro's Gifts and a bunch of things that are still upcoming. I'm also bisexual and demisexual, and feel like I had an unorthodox journey to realizing both of those things. I didn't actually realize I was bi until well after I was in a happily committed monogamous relationship, and for awhile after that, I wasn't sure if I "counted" as part of the LGBTQ+ community as a cis bi woman partnered with a cis man.

Part of what helped was hearing from other bi people with similar experiences, which just goes to show why greater representation and visibility is so important. It's a scary time for so many people right now, and it can help to escape for a little while to another world less encumbered by the prejudices of ours. Seeing characters of numerous orientations and gender identities included in gaming products means a lot to me. It's a signal to the wider audience, especially those who might be queer or questioning themselves, that we exist, and we have stories too.”

Alex Speidel, Organized Play Associate

“I came to roleplaying games largely after I’d figured out my bisexuality, so for me gaming isn’t so much a story of discovery as it is one of getting to live out my fantasies of a world where I can truly be my best self. Literally no character I have ever created is both heterosexual and cisgender. I consider part of my responsibility at Paizo, with whatever platform this position gives me, to make sure our products aren’t just inclusive, but progressive.

I’m very lucky that I have a family who has always accepted me for who I am. I know many others don’t have that, and that we find our own families through these spaces. It’s important that we as a community continue to use our positions to affirm truths: that queer people are people, and they’re here, and they’re not obligated to hide; that trans lives matter and trans rights are human rights; and that coming out is neither the start nor end of someone’s journey.”

This year we have also Pride merch to support Tabletop Gaymers, a nonprofit organization whose mission is championing the visibility and inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community through tabletop gaming. Five dollars from each Paizo Pride Golem pin and apparel item sold will go directly to Tabletop Gaymers.

Pride Pin — Paizo Golem
Show your pride, Paizo Golem style! This enamel pin made by Campaign Coins features a 40mm tall Paizo Golem in the Pride flag colors.

Paizo Golem Pride Apparel from OffWorld Designs
Show your Pride with bags, polos, hats, and more from our friends at OffWorld Designs.

Thank you for your patronage and for being a part of our incredible community.

Adventures Ahead,

Aaron Shanks,
Paizo Marketing and Media Manager