It's back!
In honour of pride month — and to kick off Pride Week in Toronto — put your hands up for the Official Gay Card, Pride 2012 Edition!
A quick recap:
- on June 1, 2011, I launched The Official Gay Card, an playful online quiz that puts your gayness to the test, and rewards you with your proverbial "Gay Card" that you can stow and share in gay-mergencies. (You can also have your Gay Card revoked by a fellow Gay Cardholder if you commit 3 gay sins…)
- the web traffic grew over the course of 3 weeks, and then went viral after a blog post by Dan Savage on the Slog and a mention on Towleroad by Andy Towle (thanks again guys!)
- one month after launch, the site had received almost 70,000 page views from 137 countries (with nearly 23,000 hits on June 21 alone!), 2450 PDF downloads and 1575 iPhone downloads.
After the amazing reception, I decided to revamp the quiz and the card. There were two main changes I wanted to make:
- Dan Savage aptly suggested that "there should be more than one way to earn your gay card" — and I couldn't agree more. So now there is! The quiz questions have expanded from Yes/No answers to multiple choice — and the the answers you choose not only determine if you are gay, but what type of gay you are on the spectrum.
- A few lesbian ladies emailed me and asked, "What about us? I can haz lesbian card?" Now they can! The quiz is now loaded with a full set of lezbodacious questions, and an Official Lez Card (with its own set of "Woman-dments") for the ladies who love ladies.
Additionally, with last summer's site traffic, I saw an opportunity to use the Gay Card powers for good. So now, when you claim your card, there are easy links to donate to three exceptional LGBT charities:
- It Gets Better — the online project created by Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach if they can just get through their teen years.
- Camp fYrefly — Canada's only national leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, intersexed, queer, questioning, and allied youth.
- Youth Line — an Ontario-wide peer-support online forum and toll-free phone line for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, 2-spirited, queer and questioning youth.
And that's it! Pride it a time to reflect on our history, support our community, and celebrate diversity. So let's get this party started! Whether you're a lez, gay, bear, cub, otter, wolf, lion, bull, pup, gorilla, leatherman, chub, chaser, jock, musclehead, hipster, alterna-queer, pomo, gay-lister, diva, queen, princess, twink, twunk, fairy, Mary, Nancy, nelly, club kid, circuit boy, pretty boy, gay-sian, yester-gay, fruit, size queen, drama queen, drag queen, drag king, femme, butch, fetch, gold star lesbian, lone star lesbian, lipstick lesbian, chapstick lesbian, hasbian, tomboy, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, pansexual, assexual, intersex, queer, questioning, 2-spirited, or an ally, you are family.
Take the quiz. Get the card. Spread the love. And always, be proud.
Thanks! Happy Pride!
CR
p.s. Don't forget to check out the mobile site!
p.p.s. Special thanks to all the friends who helped make this year's card come to life. Extra special thanks to my web developer Chris Roberts for making the site purrfect, and to my friends Jaina R. and Tonya C. for their amazing advice on the Lez Card quiz content.
