Hey all! As you may have read already in this blog, Fandom is teaming up with Starlight Children’s Foundation for the Design-A-Gown contest, a very fun contest to help bring joy to kids dealing with serious illness across the United States by providing them with awesome hospital gowns that are more comfortable and more colorful than the standard gowns.

How to join?

1. Download your Starlight & Fandom Design-A-Gown template.

2. Break out the markers or design digitally, whichever way your artistic muse whispers to you

3. Click here to upload your design by October 1 to enter.

Five finalists will be selected for our voting phase, which will run from October 14th to 21st, with the winner announced on November 3rd. The winning gown design will be manufactured and sent to hospitalized kids across the country!

To help spread the light, feel free to share your your designs on social media as well for some extra visibility by using #DesignHappiness. #ForTheLoveOfSharingLight, and tagging Fandom and Starlight!

• Instagram handles: @StarlightChildrensFoundation and @GetFandom

• Twitter handles: @StarlightUS and @GetFandom

If art isn't really your strong suit but you still want to help out, a $35 donation to Starlight can help provide a comfy, colorful gown to a hospitalized child. Additionally, Fandom is making a $50,000 donation to Starlight as part of this collaboration. Together we're hoping to truly bring light and joy to ill children, so release that creative muse and break out that (digital) pencil!

Hi all!

What stereotypes can you identify in the show that portrays the LGBT community or portrays issues affecting the LGBT community?

THANKS!

Hi there!

Just want some opinions on the following questions:

1. Do you think OITNB portrayed the LGBTQ+ community accurately?

2. Is the representation of LGBT in OITNB positive or negative?

3. How does characters in OITNB encourage audience to think critically about the LGBT community? OR How does the characters negatively influenced the audience?

4. Do you think OITNB is a good series that promotes diversity and hence influence the audience in a positive way?

How do stereotypical characters in Orange is the New Black encourage audiences to think critically about issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community?

In Season 7 we get more of a glimpse into Maria's life up until she got arrested for selling counterfeit jeans (which isn't exactly a henious offense but that's America) she was having sex with that guy who got her involved in the fair jeans business. So she gets pregnant and calls Yadriel and tells him it's hers. Is it meant to be one of those mysteries we won't ever really find out?

So when you consider most characters who were in more than one season OR an integral part of a specific season got a backstory as to why they're in Litchfield and how they were raised etc I was surprised that Gina Murphy and Yoga Jones didn't have a few flash backs. Anyone know why???

I mean the sea witch Linda got one and so did the intolerable Back Fat-ison Murphy.

Here is my list

Red Dies on the last episode after she served her sentence

The new warden is fired

Mcollugh commits suicide

Alieda and daya kill each other on the last episode like carol and barb

Any other thoughts

Hi, I'm a high school student. I've a research project related to OITNB. Is there anyone who I can interview? Thanks a lot!

Hey all! As you probably know, June is Pride Month, a month where we try to highlight the core message of love is love!

While that should be not something to raise your head over, it sadly isn't as normal yet as it should be, but steps are taken to improve and create a safe place for everyone.

So as the Wiki Representative assigned to this community, I want to highlight the LGBTQ+ resources that Fandom shared with its communities and the guidelines for the platform. You can read the entire post here with links to many helpful resources should your ever find yourself in need of them.

The core message that Fandom is sending is to ask for continued kindness and compassion, that people participating on our platform all follow the following simple "rules" to make Fandom a safe space for everyone (though these rules really transcend "online life" and are just good notes to live by in general if you were to ask me):

• Be inclusive and open to others.

• Don't use slurs or homophobic, transphobic (including exorsexism), aphobic or biphobic language, even if it's not directed at anyone in particular.

• Treat people as individuals; don’t expect a single person or their experiences to represent an entire community.

• Respect a person’s identity and use the terms that someone uses for themselves by mirroring their language.

• In articles, use the pronouns and gender identity that the character uses for themselves. If the character says "I am a woman", use that in the article - even if another character calls her a man.

• Don't use the word "gay" as an insult.

• Use the correct pronouns when you know them. And if you don't know, ask! To avoid misgendering someone, use they/them/theirs pronouns until you have the opportunity to ask them.

• Don’t assume people’s pronouns. Even if you are correct, this can send a harmful message that you have to look or act a specific way to be seen as a certain gender.

• Don't use deadnames, both for other users and the people/characters you write about. For articles, you can make a redirect page for the deadname. That will ensure that people looking for the character can easily find them under either name.

• Speak up- if you see something offensive, report it to admins or Special:Contact

• Speak to the person before advocating for them. Never out someone’s orientation or gender identity.

If you have any questions about any of this or just want to talk about it, please do feel empowered to reach out to a fellow community member or me personally--here in the comments, on my message wall, or even on Discord (Lostris#4280) if you'd prefer a more private venue--cause I believe it is important that people can get their voice heard, especially when you see something happening that makes you and/or others feel unsafe.

I have been a part of this platform in various community roles for 10 years now if I count it all up, and it truly has been such a welcoming, open, and fun experience for me. So let's continue to be inclusive to everyone and spread the message that love is love!

I fucking love her. That's it.

I mean overall just looking at their chemistry they go really well together and no matter what happened between them they still loved each other. I just really think they should have ended up together, if they did it also probably would’ve changed Lornas mental state at the end of the show

Hey everyone! Fandom will be hosting The Downstream, which is a Twitch stream that anyone can attend. By attending, you can get updates on major initiatives like FandomDesktop, the Fandom brand, and Fanatical, as well as have conversations with the Product Design team, the Marketing team, the Fanatical team, and others!

When? Friday, May 28th at 8am US Pacific (click the link to convert to your timezone!)

Where? Fandom’s Twitch channel (click the link to join!)

Hope to see you then!