So last week I made a board game template, which was kind of a nice break from not-coding because I’m busy procrastinating on a different project.  So, there’s this community called SMYRC (Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center) and it’s basically a safe place for queer kids to hang out (high school age) and meet other gaybies.  I used to go, and there was an alumni meeting recently of all the youth from when I used to go (like a big gay high school reunion).  Anyways, I wanted to bring something to this reunion that we could give to the youth to build off of.  One of my biggest complaints about the queer community is how challenging it can be to feel connected across generations.  It isn’t like gay parents can give their gay babies a sense of gay tradition.  I’ve heard some amazing stories from older queers about the politics of being gay in the in the past and it just brings a broader sense of community to being queer.  

So, longer story shorter, I made a board game template.  I made blank cards, decided that the cards had to be something anecdotal with a “move forward or backwards x spaces”.  The photos are too tiny to really read, but these say things like “Out of Coffee, skip turn”, “Get run over by pride float, move back 3 spaces”, “You’re baking cookies. There’s are no eggs and no milk or butter.  Use avocado and applesauce like a boss.  Forward 5 spaces”, and “Pierced yourself with a safety pin (and it gets infected). Move back 3 spaces”.   It brought up a lot of great stories and was a really fun bonding experience since most of us were awkward art kids in the first place. 

I also made a blank board based off of their logo.  There are a couple alternative paths, but one is

clearly shorter than the rest.  The rules I printed were basically “The person with the most glitter on goes first.  Pick a card to see how far you move.  Everyone is a winner but the game ends when you age out.”  (Aging out means being too old to be considered a youth anymore by smyrc’s standards).  I’m really glad I made this project, even though I didn’t actually get to play it in the end.  I hope to visit it in a few months to see what the youth have added, I’ll post photos when that happens.