Here is the schedule of panels, talks, and events we have planned for QueerCon 2023, which is being held as an in-person and hybrid event this year! More will be added as we get closer to the event so keep an eye out!

Zoom links to the panel rooms will be sent to advance ticket holders.  Panel talk links will also be posted to our Discord server in the #happening-now channel under the “Welcome to QueerCon!” category.  All talks, panels, and special events will have closed captioning enabled.

• Skip down the page to:
  • Convention maps
  • Photo booth (12 – 4 pm)
  • Panel Schedules
    • Keynote 12:30 pm
    • QueerCon After-hours Events & Drag Show (18+) 5 – 8 pm
  • Game Rooms (1:30 – 4:30 pm)
  • Quiet Rooms
  • Food Trucks and Concessions (12 – 6 pm)

Parking & Maps

Click to view larger map images, or download the full program (PDF) here.

WWU Queer Con Program

• Download the UPDATED program (PDF) here.
  • Parking and Bus campus map for QueerCon 2023 (png)
    • *note: There is accessible close proximity parking for our vendors, panelists, and mobility-limited attendees.  To request proximity parking, use our form to request parking in advance (closes 6:00 pm on Friday, April 28); any remaining permits will be available day-of at the check-in desk.  Email wwuqueercon@gmail.com with questions.
  • Ground Floor: Check-ins, Will-Call & Ticket sales, Information, Panel Room A, Panel Room B, Quiet Room, Gender-neutral restrooms, lactation room 
  • Middle Floor: Artist Alley, Vending, Panel Room C, Panel Room D, All-ages Game Room, Restrooms 
  • Top Floor: Artists and Organizations, including some 18+/NSFW tables in the AW Sky Bridge, Vending, 18+ Game Room, Panel Room E (18+), Gender-neutral restrooms

Artist Alley– Artist and Organization Tables

Location: Academic West hallways & sky bridge, all 3 floors

• Main Exhibitor Hallways 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
  • Exhibitor tables will be open from 12 pm until 5 pm in the main hallways
  • Tables and vendors are posted in our Featured Guest List: WWU QueerCon 2023 Guest List

Photo Booth– Glitt3rlyfe photo booth

Location: Academic West Ground Floor North– Check-in Tables

• Photo Booth Hours 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
  • Capture the moment with Glytt3rlyfe’s amazing full-service photo booth, WWU QueerCon rainbow glitter background, and on-demand photo prints

QueerCon Special Events

Panel Room A – Panels, Presentations, and Special Events – AW 210

• 1:00 – 1:30 pm – Special Event – All-Ages Planetarium Show
  • • Queer Star Stories All-Ages Virtual Planetarium Show with Astro Erin
      • Read more: Queer Star Stories

        Greek and Roman Mythology may have been sanitized in recent memory to wash away most of its queer content, but Queer Star Stories is here to bring them back in all their queer glory.
        This all-ages event will be a half-hour show featuring the often-forgotten tale of Perseus and Hermes and the heroic trans tale of Caeneus.
        The last 10-15 minutes will be audience choice exploration of space!
        Visit Astro Erin’s page here: ko-fi.com/astronomyftw 
• 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Presentation by WWU’s LGBTQ+ Western
  • • WWU LGBTQ+ Western Resources with JoeHahn, LGBTQ+Western Director
      • Read more: LGBTQ+ Resources

        Are you new to WWU, considering attending, or want to find connections in the LGBTQ+ community at Western? Then come to this session to learn all the resources relating to LGBTQ+ Western, Pride Housing, LGBTQ+ clubs, and more! 
• 2:30 – 3:30 pm – Presentation
  • • Building up our Bellingham queer community – Presentation with Michelle Harmeier from Bellingham Queer Collective
      • Read more: Building up B'ham Queer Community

        The Bellingham Queer Collective is an intersectional and intergenerational LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC group focused on gathering people together for in person arts, cultural and outdoor events. Learn how WWU students can get involved and provide input about how the group can better support students and other members of our queer community. 
• 3:30 – 4:15 pm – Special Event – Drag Panel
  • • A panel and Q&A on Drag Performance with Royal Gambit Drag Club & Bellingham Drag Icon Betty Desire
      • Read more: Drag Panel

        Join Divine intervention, Addy HD, Axe Andros, Betty Desire, Juicy Dill Emma, Sage Valentine, and Jesper Stone for a panel-style Q&A as an exciting prelude to their QueerCon after-hours drag performance.  They will start with general background about when they started, and inspiration, and continue on with audience questions. 
        Bring any questions that you would like to ask our drag artists! 
• 4:30 – 5:00 pm – Special Event – Performance
  • • WWU Idol Club – Debut Performance! with Alex Anderson, Moss Golding, Salem Atkins, Andrew Worthington, Liu Stockton
      • Read more: Idol Club Performance

        The WWU Idol club will be performing our debut setlist as an official club! Bring lightsticks if you have them, and be ready to cheer along!

Panel Room B – Panels, Presentations, Workshops, and Special Events – AW 204

• 12:30 – 1:30 pm – WWU QueerCon Keynote Presentation
  • • Media with Queer Ethos: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Representation with Jessie Gender
• 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Special Event – Panel 
  • •  Making Queer Characters – featuring Craig Hurd-McKenney, Josh Trujillo, Luciano Vecchio, and Kameron White
      • Read more: Making Queer Characters

        We’ll talk about the process behind making queer characters: designing costumes, backstories and more!
• 2:30 – 3:30 pm – Special Event – Workshop 
  • • Comics as Autobiography – Workshop with Andrew Lucchesi
      • Read more: Comics as Autobiography

        This workshop will focus on simple comics-making drawing techniques that participants will use to make autobiographical portraits and short comics. The focus will be on queer identity expression and community belonging. 
• 3:30 – 4:30 pm – Presentation
  • • Writing Stories of Our Lives – Panel featuring author Patricia Grayhall (Sparks)
      • Read more: Writing Stories of Our Lives

        I am the author of Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and Medicine.  I would like to encourage other queer people to write their stories as we need to document our lives to become part of a more complete history of our shared humanity. 
         

Panel Room C – Panels, Talks, and Special Events – AW 304

• 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Panel 
  • • Queer Representation in Literature: Canon and Non-Canon (*18+) – Panel with Addy Ebrahimy & Juniper Fiser
      
      • Read more: Queer Representation in Literature

        Presentation of the history of queer representation in fictional media. Begins with the historic representation in books, then films, and then ends off with representation in modern society, specifically in the fanfiction world.
• 2:30 – 3:30 pm – Presentation 
  • • Why is Kink at Pride? (*18+) – Presentation with Zelda
      • Read more: Kink at Pride

        This panel is going to address some questions on why kink is allowed at pride, and how did it get there? In this panel, I am going to tell people about its significance to the LGBTQ community and its history of how kink got to pride in the first place, since when some people go to pride, they might be confused why it is there at all. 
• 3:30 – 4:00 pm – Presentation
  • • The trend of majority wlw in children’s media – Presentation with Hadyn Adams
      • Read more: wlw in children's media

        Discusses the majority of LGTBQ+ couples being lesbian/sapphic couples in children’s media. Lists examples of LGTBQ+ couples in children’s media as well as theories about why this is the case and hopes for the future of LGTBQ+ couples in media.

•  4:00 – 4:30 pm – Presentation
  • • Reading Between the Lines: Queercoding vs. Queerbaiting – Presentation with author Leigh Hellman
      • Read more: Queercoding vs. Queerbaiting

        With the continuous expansion of explicitly LGBTQ+ media, debates surrounding the issue of “queerbaiting” have branched out of fandom spaces and into popular discourse. But what is the distinction between queerbaiting and queercoding, and what is the history that shaped these interconnected practices and still influences media and cultural mores today? 

* Attendance to 18+ Panel Rooms is restricted to guests age 18 and over.

QueerCon After-Hours Events – Shows and Performances – AW 210 & AW 204

• • •  
• 5:00 – 5:45 pm – Special Event – Planetarium Show (18+)
  • • Queer Star Stories Virtual Planetarium Show with Astro Erin – AW 204 (*18+)
      • Read more: Queer Star Stories (18+)

        Greek and Roman Mythology may have been sanitized in recent memory to wash away most of its queer content, but Queer Star Stories is here to bring them back in all their queer glory.
        This 18+ event will be a 45-minute-long show featuring the not-so-wholesome adventures of Jupiter with Ganymede and Callisto, the tragic tale of Phaethon and King Cygnus.
        The last 10-15 minutes will be audience choice exploration of space!
        CW: Dubious Consent, Power Dynamics, Heroic Death, Tragic Death, General Greek Shenanigans
        Visit Astro Erin’s page here: ko-fi.com/astronomyftw 
• 5:15 – 6:15 pm Special Event: Queer Open Mic (18+)
  • • QueerCon After-Hours Queer Open Mic – AW 210 (*18+)
      • A special event with registration in advance and at the door
        • Read more: Queer Open Mic

          Whether it is poetry, music, performance, or reading, you are invited to join us for a queer-themed open mic.  Mature themes and NSFW content may be presented at this 18+ event.
          You can register by 11:59pm on Friday, April 21 for a guaranteed space in the roster, or you can sign up at the check-in tables for the standby list, first come, first served for the time remaining.
•  6:15 – 7:45 pm Special Event: Drag Show (18+)
  • • QueerCon After-Hours Drag Show (*18+) – hosted by WWU’s Royal Gambit Drag Club – AW 204
      • Read more: Drag Show

        Royal Gambit, WWU’s premier drag performance student group, will be hosting a drag show to close out the night. 18+ event. 

*Attendance to 18+ Events is restricted to guests age 18 and over

Food

• 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Sammies food cart
  • Sammies offers hot, hand-crafted vegan cheesesteaks made-to-order. They will be outside of the Academic West building from lunch time until 6pm.
• 1:30 – close – Concessions fundraiser stand at the info desk
  • After 1:30 pm, there will be fundraiser snacks and beverages available at the front desk on the ground floor of AW.

*WWU QueerCon is sad to announce that Sage Against the Machine will be closing and will no longer be able to join us in April.

We are looking for food vendors for our event. Contact wwuqueercon@gmail.com if you would like to join us as a food vendor.

Special Thanks to our 2023 Sponsors: