We told you about Gaymercon, the upcoming video-game convention for LGBT folks and their friends thatâs so highly anticipated organizers collected more than three times their $25,000 Kickstarter goal before the deadline.
Sadly, another group of gay gamers is facing a more dismal fate: GayGamer.net is reporting on â r/gaymers,â a Reddit forum facing a cease-and-desist order from Gaymer.org founder Chris Vizzini, who trademarked the term âgaymerâ in 2007.
Vizzini is asking the 16,000-subscriber-strong forum to be taken down.
MisterGhost, one of the forumâs moderators, was not pleased about the situation and shared his opinion:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
 âIt would seem that the owner of gaymer.org is an incredible douchenozzle and has decided that we somehow are infringing upon his right to run a very subpar blogâŚ
It would be easy for us to argue that gaymers is just descriptive of Gay Gamers and is just descriptive mark and not some sort of corporate logo or trademark. Now if anyone has any question in regards to this claim: I am sure that the gentleman sending the cease and desist, who is bringing these claims against us, would be happy to answer the questions of you 16,000 gaymers.
I am sad, sure, I will be honest, Iâm not the happiest guy around. However, you dudes have become happy. People I know have improved their lives, RedditHolmes has gotten married to a gaymer for fucks sake, people have gotten jobs, even some of you have confided in me the want to commit suicide, unless I or someone else convinced you otherwise. Guys, Ladies, and everyone else, this is bullshit, IT IS NONSENSE, quite frankly FUCK THIS ENTIRE LEGAL ENDEAVOR. Reddit will not help us, neither will anyone else. The estimate I got for defending us legally would be above 50k dollars, and honestly since I was begging for food and money trying to pay for gaymers mumble, I donât think that we are gonna be able to get the money needed.â
While Vizzini has the right to shut down unauthorized public use of âgaymer,â some are saying the term has evolved into general terminology, which would be protected by the ban on descriptive trademarks. (You canât, for example, trademark the word âqueer.â) But to fight the trademark could cost upwards of $50,000 in legal fees.
Another r/gaymers moderator, MrPookers, provided more detailed information:
âIf reddit complies with this cease and desist order, /r/gaymers and its entire history of posts and comments could be destroyed. In the nearly two years of its existence, weâve had a gift exchange and meetups that have brought together hundreds of gaymers all over the world, spawned guilds and corporations and brought two gaymers together in an actual, real-life marriage. We have built a very real community here. They can take the name gaymers from our subreddit, we canât fight that battle legally â but we have to keep our history.â
MrPookers instructed members to migrate to /r/internauts, at least until the dust settles. Facing mobs of angry MMO players, Vizzini posted about the situation on Reddit himself:
âFirst and foremost, I never asked for the sub-reddit gaymer to be removed. I emailed reddit twice asking that they simply rename the community to something else. They did not respond. As a trademark and word mark holder, itâs my responsibility to defend the marks, otherwise I could lose them.
I started Gaymer.org in 2003 and began to build Gaymer as a brand. Thats why I trademarked and word marked the name. At that time, there was only one other site around dedicated to gay gamers. I have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on Gaymer.org. I have done so gladly as itâs brought happiness to many people.â
Vizzini also explained why GaymerCon was not similarly served with a cease-and-desist order:
âThey do not have an online community. That is a convention. My marks pertain to online communities. Should they ever add an online community, then I would have issue with that.â
A gay geek subcultureâembracing video games, comic books, Dr. Who, etc.âhas blossomed in recent decades and provides safe space for people who sometimes feel like outsiders among outsiders. âItâs thornyâI wouldnât want to disrespect due process and intellectual property but I guess Iâm disappointed,â says GeeksOutâs Jono Jarret. âItâs such a fun, clever and, above all, positive term thatâs already been so embraced by the community. It could be such a great inclusive word instead of, now, an exclusive word.â
Itâs definitely a complicated situation that raises all kinds of legal, sociological and linguistic issues. But you donât have to be a gamerâor a lawyerâto have an opinion: Fire away in the comments section below.
And if you are a lawyer, and want to offer r/gaymers some pro bono counsel, you can reach out to them here.
gaybar
GayBar has many features that you would expect to find in any dating site, including Date Auto matching, secure Online Chat, Secure Online Email and Email Notifications.gay dating, gay men
startrekkev
Well this is stupid. I started using the term gaymer when I first came out a few years ago. It’s not like it’s a particularly difficult word to come up with. I imagine that most gaymers came up with the term themselves before finding it online. I’d never even heard of the gaymer reddit or gaymer.org before today. I would bet that Mr Vizzini wasn’t the first to come up with it. He was just the first one selfish enough to think it belonged only to him, instead of to the entire community of gaymers.
5ykes
Hasnt Mike Brown (competitive gamer) been using this as his callsign at tournaments for years?
EMP_Ricky_O_Pls
@5ykes: I wouldn’t call Mike Brown a competitive gamer. I mean, what was the last major tournament he entered and for what game? Go google “EG.Ricky Ortiz”, an actual out, gay competitive player. đ