Stonewall makes headlines!

If I don't make it in this weekend it's because I've gnawed off all my fingers to the hand... But hey maybe Takei will get wind of it and make something really awesome.

Nick,

What you did there: amazing. Thank you for representing our community with such eloquence and reflection through the spirit of Trek.

Yet another strong reminder of how great this fleet really is. I'm excited for Pride and ever grateful for the friends I've made and continue to make in Stonewall Fleet.

I salute you, sir. Props.

Steve

1) Well-written, most certainly.

2) Negative reactions are more muted than I would have anticipated - the overwhelming outpouring of support I think attests to that. There's no greater motivator for reexamining one's most deeply held prejudices than a good ole public shaming.

3) Some how My Little Pony fandom has gotten mixed up in this? Someone is gonna need to flowchart that for me.

I was so proud to find that Stonewall made the front page of startrekonline.com. I really enjoyed the positive message in this great blog, thank you Nick for this awesome job! :) Although next weekend is already fully scheduled with non-STO social events, I'm going to try to log in as much as I can during pride!

Congratulations on getting the fleet and the pride event on the front page of STO. The article was very well written and a more than worthy guest blog.

Kudos to Cryptic for asking you to do that and to promote the event.

Well done. :cheer:

A great piece and, I would say, pretty historic entry into the annals of MMORPGs across the board. They are many games out there that would never embrace the diversity of their members in the way of STO clearly has by publicising this blog post and thus demonstrating a commitment to equality in the universe.
It amazes me that anyone could call themselves a fan of Star Trek yet be a "phobe" of any variety - it would be in completely contradiction to everything Gene and Majel Roddenberry stood for and believed.
But I am pleased to see that the response of haters out there has been relatively weak and unscientific - clearly their minds could never conceive of warp capable flight - perhaps they should be allowed to join a new faction representing those violent prehistoric types that regularly appeared on the Original Series.

I have to say well done.. and congrats too...
having seen some of the forum posts, its made it even more concrete that I have chosen the right fleet to be a family member of, and to feel relaxed in, to have fun, be myself and not to hide.

All though I am a bit quiet on chat and vent. Its made me proud to have stonewall fleet, float above my ship

Congratulations NicholasJohn16! Very nice piece highlighting one of the more important messages of Star Trek. And, as has already been said, an article that is both good in content and good in that the developers featured it in such a prominent way. Some forum responses of less than pleasing quality, but a lot of support too.

It is a lot of fun, though, to feed the trolls on that forum, watching them turn themselves into pretzels with their contortionist logic. I just can't wait to see the classic bigot line of, "But some of my best friends are gay!" Didn't Paula Dean just use that one in another form?

Quote by Jerran

" Didn't Paula Dean just use that one in another form?

I mean - right before she fried it in butter, y'all.

Now that the weekend's coming to a close, I wanted to post something here.

This weekend has been emotionally exhausting. When I was writing the Guest Blog, I never thought I'd get the reaction I did. I thought it'd be a great way to advertise the Pride Weekend and, personally, I was a bit honored to be worthy to be on Star Trek Online's blog, but I never expected this.

Don't let the thread replies fool you. The response to the blog has been unanimously positive. I've received mails, tells, emails, Facebook messages, and carrier pigeons thanking me for the blog post, for creating Stonewall Fleet and (This was probably the most emotional for me.) being such a good spokesperson for the glbt community.

People have told me stories about how Stonewall Fleet is the only place they feel comfortable because in real life they live in non-accepting areas. People have confessed stories about how Stonewall Fleet helped them come to terms with their orientation or helped them admit that they were differently gendered. One person told me I was a credit to humanity. The thanks have been in English, French, German and nerd. When PUGing one of the Nukura missions, I was recognized by a player as the blog writer and he was so happy just to run a mission with me. I've been brought to tears more times I can count this weekend.

While I really love Stonewall Fleet, I never imagined it could mean so much to other people. I usually think of Stonewall Fleet as just some guild in an MMO that I run. Let's face it, in the rest of the world, Guild Leaders and Trekkies aren't considered the coolest people in the world. But all of this has been a rather uplifting. That I could help so many people. (Don't worry though, I won't let it go to my head.)

I'm kinda speechless here. I'm not really sure where I'm going at this point, just that I've been so moved this weekend. I thank you all for the support and the praise.

I suppose the last thing I wanted to say was that I first contacted Brandon about the Guest Blog over a month ago. It killed me to keep it a secret the whole time, but I really wanted it to be a surprise for you all. So where you surprised? How did you first find out about it?

Surprised by the blog, well yes. Surprised by the many responses (both good and bad), yes. Surprised by your Human Nature, well no. You are an amazing person, and no I will not call you master (yesterdays Nukura runs). :laugh:

I heard about it here on the Stonewall forums as I do not generally visit public forums because of all the trolls. It can be difficult to sift through crap for an answer to something. I did take the time to read through about half of the responses to your Guest Blog. There are still many many individuals that don't understand the message, both yours and that of the Star Trek premise. I look forward to next weekend to see how many people drop in to the events.

Well done Nick! :woohoo:

Aww, Nick *Hugz*

You created something very special and it has touched the lives of so many including myself. Your blog was eloquent and heartfelt and I am gratified by the outpouring of support from the general STO community. Though I will admit that I had to stop reading the forum thread on Friday because that rather vocal minority was a great reminder as to why these forums are the only forums I feel 100% comfortable commenting in. Trollers gonna troll, not much we can do about that. You're doing a great job raising awareness in the gaming community and I know that Pride is going to be a blast.

I was surprised not really, you know what I mean? But I am loving it I'm really excited about this weekend and I think STOPride (Any one else see it as STOP ride? no one? Maybe it's just me...) will be HUGE and with the Risa event starting I think this will be incredible exposure and who knows maybe even more people will be joining in.

I really didn't pay much mind to the haters but I was actually touched seeing how many people from other fleets came to defend it.

Any way Really proud of you and proud of the fleet... now next project...the Nyan Cat Tribble.