Proudmoore Pride 2010: June 19th

June is LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender) month in the US and elsewhere, and Blizzard recognized it with the gayest wallpaper that they have ever released. More importantly, it means that there are going to be lots of gay pride events around the world, including in the World of Warcraft!

Proudmoore Pride has been held every year since WoW’s launch and has been primarily run by The Spreading Taint family of guilds. This year, it will be on June 19th at noon PST. Many, many LGBT-friendly guilds and players take part in Proudmoore Pride from both factions. While I don’t know an exact number, it was easily over 500 last year, perhaps upwards of a thousand, and it has grown extremely quickly year to year, likely faster than the growth of the WoW player base. The Spreading Taint family of guilds alone reports 4,658 unique members have at some point been recorded in one of the guilds over some 12,000 characters. Even if you are not interested in the parade itself, it’s still quite an event to witness this many players in one place.

Players not currently in a guild on the US Proudmoore realm, or who would like to network with the The Spreading Taint on Horde or Stonewall Family on Alliance, can join a temporary guild connected to the other guilds’ chat. Both The Spreading Taint and Stonewall Family are already comprised of several guilds, so visitors fit right it. There are lots of guilds that participate, both Proudmoore and guest guilds from other servers, so if you are looking for an LGBT friendly guild, the parade is a great place to get to know people. The Alliance players start in Theramore and march toward Camp Taurajo, where they meet up with Horde players to march toward Ratchet to take the boat to Booty Bay for a party. If you’ve ever wanted to see a time when Dalaran is empty and you may disconnect from lag in Booty Bay, this may be your only opportunity.

Some players organize to create “floats” before hand, which are groups of players coordinated in outfits and routine to march in a group. There are contests and prizes for creative floats. To help you get the idea, check out this video from last year’s parade:

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the battle-bot float mayhem or the “>8< spider pride” army coming over the hill. If you and your guild or friends would like to make a float for this years’ parade, you can register it on the Proudmoore Pride website.

There will be an internet radio station broadcasting during the pride playing music and making announcements. If you want to send a shout-out to pride participants, you can submit a recorded message.

Oh, and if you are curious about griefers and PvP at the event: PvP is strongly discouraged. Proudmoore is a PvE realm, so the only players that may be forced to be flagged are Alliance players walking through the Barrens. However, with the hundreds to thousands of players participating in the event, any inevitable griefers have very little impact, and dozens of players from both factions run “security” to deal with any problems or accidents.

There will be lots of people available to help anyone with questions on the day of the parade. New characters can be summoned in and take part, so don’t be shy if you are interested in coming!

Check out proudmoorepride.com for more information and videos from past events and check out taint.rtgc.org and thestonewallfamily.com for information on permanently joining the guilds!

We at Rawrcast are also proud to announce that Bigheadben, organizer from the Horde side of the event, will be joining Stompalina for an interview on this week’s Episode 75! If you have any questions for Ben surrounding his guild, or the Proudmoore Pride event scheduled for June 19th, or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender) month, please send us an e-mail at hugesack@rawrcast.com!

  • Rhabella

    Hmm, I honestly don’t know how I feel about events like this. As a gay guy who plays WoW, I’d like to be able to ask things like why is it so important to share your sexuality or your pride in a video game. Homosexuality is more accepted than it has ever been in modern history, and we still hold pride events in a game?

    Don’t get me wrong, activism is important especially when it is something as fundamental as human rights, but when I log onto WoW, I do so not with the desire to be straight or gay, closeted or not, but with a desire to just play a game. Do I play with people that know I’m gay, of course I do, but it’s not ever the first thing I divulge in game because it just doesn’t matter. I often wonder if my philosophy makes me a bad fag, but as a minority on multiple fronts (I went to a small all HS with 30 kids in my class in Texas where my family was the only Hispanics in a town full of Caucasians) I’ve always thought the most practical road to acceptance is taking pride in how much we are alike and not celebrating the one thing that makes us different.

  • Stompalina

    Those are all questions we can address in the interview later this week.

  • Mike O’Hara

    I really would like to take part in this, but I’ll be in Oklahoma at the in-laws family reunion. Maybe I can drive to the McDonalds in town the day of the event and just hang out for a few hours.

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