Calling all Opinions!

Hello everyone,

I'm curious: Why did you want to/join Stonewall Fleet? What brought you to our lovely, glitter covered doorway? What value have you found in our membership?

Feel free to share your thoughts openly here, or if you want to provide more anonymous feedback, you can PM me directly, and I'll re-post the information without your ID tag.

I really do want to know and I'm sure there are other people that are interested too!

Most sincerely,

Ilidan Sol @duriansol 

Since I asked the questions, let me start?

Why did I join Stonewall? & What brought me to the door? 
To be honest, I didn't at first. My husband wanted to move to a larger fleet as our little fleet of two people just wasn't progressing well. I also have a history of working with large fleet/guilds in MMOs and found the participation level much better than trying to work with PUGs for important events.

What value have I found in the membership?
I've made friends, first. When I'm in a funk and want to just go pewpew, I can do that by myself or with a few friends. I can also join in with Fleeties that are working on different missions and pewpew with them.

I've also found value in the break away from the daily LGBT politics that I get bombarded with in my mundane life, I know that I can talk openly about my Husbear (a term I learned from Stonewall) and not have to worry about defending my choice of using Husbear, having a husband, or being attacked on a whim by some passerby (thank you overall STO community.)

Lastly, I've been able to get access to equipment and ships that were beyond my price-tag thanks to Fleet events and the Stonewall Credits. I got my first Wizkid code by participating in the various events in-game and on the forums and bought the code from our own FLEETSTORE. 

I do want to know more about each of you, and look for me in-game. 
@duriansol

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In my case -- I'd been a member of another LGBTQ-aligned fleet since around STO's launch. Nice group of people, but I never really felt like I fit in. I couldn't really say why, but we just didn't click.

So I kept looking. I suspect at some point I saw a ship flying around with the Stonewall flag on it, and did some Googling. In July of 2015, I finally got around to applying to the fleet.

It's significant that I joined in July, because the summer event was going on, and my first face-to-face meeting (in-game) with any of my fellow fleeties was on Risa. At that point I knew I wanted to stay, 'cuz as you know, Stonewall members are smokin' hot. As time passed, I also found they were really fun people to hang out with.

Most important, though, is I feel like I fit in Stonewall Fleet. I have never felt like an outsider from the day I first joined, and I'm very familiar with feeling like an outsider. Don't let my stunning good looks and brilliant wit fool you -- I am a socially awkward penguin of the highest degree, and to feel like I belong is pretty huge to me.

Stonewall doesn't just say they're welcoming and inclusive as a marketing line -- we really are. See, I said "we." Rolled off the keyboard totally naturally, like I feel like I belong or something.

Anyway, that's why I'm here.

Quote by Duriansol

Why did you want to/join Stonewall Fleet? What brought you to our lovely, glitter covered doorway? 

I believe I was looking around for a fleet because I was getting a bit lonely after hitting level 60. I specifically wanted an LGBTQ fleet so I could feel more comfortable. I'm wary of my trans status, so I prefer not to take any chance with 'regular' guilds. 
I remember seeing Reddit fleets for STO, so I googled LGBTQ fleets for the game, and I ended up finding a few. The one I looked at first seemed inactive, and Stonewall had a nice page with Discord access.
Discord is a huge bonus to me, even if I was a little intimidated by the code of conduct page (I'm paranoid).

What value have you found in our membership?

Well, first of all - You guys are funny. I'm a strange and sometimes bitchy person, so I don't mesh perfectly with any group of people, but I'm enjoying my time with the Fleet. And I don't feel like a complete outsider so that's nice.
I absolutely LOVE all the organized events and the fleet store idea. It really feels like a nice, tight-knit community. Everyone is so helpful, and it's great to have other nerds to talk too when I'm on.
I wish there were more ladies in the fleet, but I'm managing.

Quote by Balduranne

Quote by Duriansol

Why did you want to/join Stonewall Fleet? What brought you to our lovely, glitter covered doorway? 

I believe I was looking around for a fleet because I was getting a bit lonely after hitting level 60. I specifically wanted an LGBTQ fleet so I could feel more comfortable. I'm wary of my trans status, so I prefer not to take any chance with 'regular' guilds. 
I remember seeing Reddit fleets for STO, so I googled LGBTQ fleets for the game, and I ended up finding a few. The one I looked at first seemed inactive, and Stonewall had a nice page with Discord access.
Discord is a huge bonus to me, even if I was a little intimidated by the code of conduct page (I'm paranoid).

What value have you found in our membership?

Well, first of all - You guys are funny. I'm a strange and sometimes bitchy person, so I don't mesh perfectly with any group of people, but I'm enjoying my time with the Fleet. And I don't feel like a complete outsider so that's nice.
I absolutely LOVE all the organized events and the fleet store idea. It really feels like a nice, tight-knit community. Everyone is so helpful, and it's great to have other nerds to talk too when I'm on.
I wish there were more ladies in the fleet, but I'm managing.

Don't worry, I felt the same about the COC at first too 😂🙈

It was Dave ;)

It's funny, I have been on STO since Beta and I traveled the sectors alone. I fought the Borg hand over fist, Broke out of prison on Rura Penthe, battled turrets with Joshua Riker. But I was alone, just my ship and my crew against the darkness of the space surrounding us. Until, one day I was curious when I saw a man standing in ESD and I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if Stonewall was a LGBTQA fleet. And the simple yes he gave changed my weekends and evenings there after. 

After joining I was welcomed by the membership that was just so nice and easy to talk to. In just a short time I felt like I had made a second family, and soon, my ship became apart of a fleet that was covered in rainbow glitter that shimmered in the tinkle of the starlight. So brightly so that it blinds our foe in the face of battle. 

I look forward to my time when I get to come together with the fleet. I enjoy the friendship, the camaraderie, the laughter, and the adventures we have along the way. 

That is why I joined and why I will stay. 

I was originally with a Fleet for 5 yrs, that was know as an all inclusive teaching fleet.  Having had to take a break from STO due to real life concerns, I returned 6 months later to find that my fleet had shifted its views from teaching to wanting all members to have a 15,000 DPS on T3 ships and then started to find other members bullying me and others for be gay.  This set me on a three month search, spending my time in game researching fleets until I found Stonewall.  I now feel right at home with everyone, enjoy time with my Fleet members

I wanted to be able to talk about the game, the universe and all things StarTrek with other fans, ideally with people where unlike most of my world outside the net I don't need to run everything I  say/do through a 'straight-cis-female' filter. That is not what I am.
What I am, is a huge big fan of everything Romulan, so when I saw "Stonewall Legion"  - LGBTQ and my favourite StarTrek aliens -  I had to find out more, and then ran to the nearest recruitment office to get some glitter on that D'Deridex.

So far, I can definitely say I love the freedom to express myself I have here, and I continue to be amazed at how kind and friendly people usually are! And I love that it's not only about DPS but about creative things like the screenshot contest and the fashion shows, and getting together socially. 
I joined shortly before the Xmas event, and had a ton of fun during that, and while fighting assimilated snowmen in the Winter Wonderland, or dancing on top of Q's ice bar. Stonewall has the best parties! I even took part in a race, something I usually avoid like the plague, and - when I finally found the Finish sign, a kind fleetie had waited for me!! That was when I decided I'd stay.

I'm still wary of doing any 'real' missions because I have perception/orientation issues which mean I will just not be a very effective team member. (And because fingers-on-keyboard-coordination sometimes leaves to be desired, I might seem to not answer you in chat, or not "see" you in-game. I'm not being rude, but I can be slow to type!)

Why did you want to/join Stonewall Fleet? What brought you to our lovely, glitter covered doorway?
Back then I had a very negative self image and was under the illusion that becoming trans would solve all my problems. This of course is not true and eventually I came to realize that, so I did not go through with it (although I still think some female clothing are a lot more awesome than some male clothing).
This was however in the same time as when I had just started playing STO and when I wanted to join a fleet, I sought one where I would not be an outsider. So I searched for LGBT fleets and found multiple LGBT fleets. Stonewall was the one that I had the best feelings about and so I joined. After the aforementioned part of the struggle with my self image was over, I was already an active member of the fleet and had a lot of fun here, not to mention that as a white, straight, non-trans male I was still not treated as an outsider, and so I stayed.

What value have you found in our membership?
Friendship, people to have fun with, teachers in the game mechanics (and in turn, being a teacher). Basically everything a fleet should be, imo.

STO was my very first online game. I bought the disc(!) months before I actually had internet access, so it was a lot of imagining and daydreaming about what the game would be like. I had heard that gaming environments could be very homophobic, and I didn't want to invite that into my life, so I looked around online (in the library lab) for an LGBTQ+ guild and found Stonewall. I've had such good times with everyone, and everyone has been so patient and kind to me.