Charlette Gaymer Network attend the Anime Festival Orlando. (Photo by Luis Xavier De Peña)
ORLANDO | Anime Festival Orlando took over the Rosen Plaza convention center June 28-30 bringing fans of Japanese animation and gaming together.
Watermark caught up in person with Charlette Gaymer Network to get their reaction on interactions at their hosted events and their thoughts about LGBTQ+ representation at the convention.
Leading up to the convention Watermark spoke to Jonny Saldana, co-founder of CGN, introducing readers to the organization. Saldana moderated the “Allyship: How to be an Effective Ally” panel which brought together CGN and the local organization Orlando Gaymer League.
“Very thankful to the convention for bringing us all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina,” Saldana said. “I’ve been very impressed to see the diversity that’s here at the convention, especially as it relates to the LGBTQ+ community. Something I didn’t know before coming here is that this con is actually queer-owned and operated so it’s really great to see that an LGBTQ group is being able to organize something that’s so impactful for our community and it’s very apparent and seeing all the LGBTQ events and programming and guests and attendees that we’re seeing that are here and hold space and hold joy for all of our LGBTQ community here.”
Candelario Saldana is a board member of the National LGBTQ Task Force and is the husband of Jonny Saldana. The couple brought their two children along with them to experience the convention together.
“Seeing representation anywhere or just creating space for LGBTQ individuals to belong and be them true selves is always incredible. And it’s needed and it gives people the opportunity to be their true self. So whether people actually showed up or not, it still created the space for them now. And it sent the message that the conference itself is inclusive of LGBTQ rights and of identities,” Candelario Saldana said.
David McCray is the Deputy Director of the CGN who was experiencing Orlando and AFO for the very first time.
“The Convention itself has been really, really good. Things have gone smoothly. I’ve enjoyed these diversity and gaming panels and the allyship panel are my favorite thing that we do at these conventions. I think it’s really cool that people have thought to include that in this community because there’s a lot of, I think, queer people within the anime community and the community in general who might be either afraid to fully express themselves or don’t feel comfortable doing so. But they can come to this kind of thing and express some sort of aspect of their personality,” McCray said.
Derrick Cuomo-Lombardi is the founder and lead facilitator of the Orlando Gaymer League. He brought a unique perspective to the panel touching on topics from representation in gaming spaces to speaking on the issues he and his husband face trying to adopt children in the state of Florida.
“While our panel wasn’t the most full, it had some really good discourse and a lot of really good questions towards the end. So that type of stuff is the start to helping fight the discrimination that we can see sometimes,” Cuomo-Lombardi said.
Johan Colon-Sanchez is the marketing and other lead facilitator for the OGL. He shared Cuomo-Lombardi’s happiness in the attentiveness of the attendees for their panel and looks forward to seeing new faces at OGL events.
“What I love about our panelists is that the people that did attend, we’re very passionate about their subjects. They asked really great compelling questions, and it was really great to just have an authentic conversation with them,” Johan Colon-Sanchez said.
Local Orlando readers looking to get involved with the Orlando Gaymer League can find them Monday nights at Savoy for their weekly Gayming Takeover. The event is 21+ and runs from 8-11 p.m.
Those looking to find a community online can also join the organizations discord channel at tinyurl.com/ogldiscord.
