If you had told me when we first started Board Gaymes that we would sell out almost every event and be at a point a year from now where we have so many visitors to our monthly board games nights that we would need to bring in extra tables and chairs, I would have 1) been confused as to how the hell you know that (are you psychic? Have we invented time travel?) and 2) absolutely would have not believed you. But here we are, a year and a half into running the nerdiest night in town, and that’s exactly where we’ve gotten.
To anyone who might not know who we are – Board Gaymes is a monthly queer board games night held in Lovelocks, one of our favourite independent LGBT-friendly cafes, and run by a group of gay nerds looking for a good time. Everyone’s welcome, as long as you’re a member of (or ally to) the queer community and you like a good round of Cluedo. It’s BYOG, bring your own games, but don’t worry if you don’t have any – we have plenty of board games lovers who bring their favourites to teach to newbies. It’s a great place to meet new people, try new things, and have a laugh over some coffee & cake.
We originally started hosting Board Gaymes out of a search for community. I moved to Liverpool in spring of 2022 – but, despite my sparkling personality, I really struggled to find queer friends nearby. Sure, Liverpool has plenty of excellent gay bars and club nights where you can make friends on the dance floor, but for those of us who like our socialisation with a little less tequila and a little more tea, there weren’t really any exclusively queer spaces beyond local support groups and some safe space cafes (like our beloved Lovelocks). That, and a shared love of all things nerdy, lead me and Daryl to host the first ever Board Gaymes back in September 2023 to celebrate Trans Pride – and since we had so much positive feedback from people feeling the same way we did, we’ve been hosting them regularly ever since.
Our Cosy Night In on November 22nd was our biggest and busiest event so far. So many new faces! Visitors from other cities! We had to bring in more tables just to give everyone a place to sit! Our silly little queer board games night has grown faster than I could’ve imagined. It’s always such a delight to see new people visiting for the first time and catch up with regular gaymers too (and if I didn’t recognise you, I’m so sorry, ADHD and face blindness are a curse 😅). It’s an absolute blessing to find not only a community of like-minded gay nerds that come to these events, but more people willing to lend a hand and make Board Gaymes nights great – including our brilliant guest DMs who run beginner friendly one-shots during the events, and the two admins who’ve joined our little team of volunteers since we started.
Look at all these lovely people!
Honestly, I must admit, when I got a moment to myself outside our last Board Gaymes night and looked back into the thriving scene behind Lovelock’s big windows, I started to get teary. I’ve been part of Board Gaymes since its inception, and I have always wanted it to be a warm and welcoming environment – a place where you could walk in knowing no one, and leave with brand new friends. Seeing everyone have a good time, the smiles and laughter – it means more to me than you could possibly imagine.
So, what are the big plans for Board Gaymes in the futuristic sounding year of 2025? Well, we’ve got a couple of cool things in the works – and we’re actually already working on trying to help our local queer community more, especially queer organisations in Liverpool. I’d like to take two seconds just to talk about one of the charities we’re planning to work with, Sahir House.
Sahir is Liverpool’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity, and next year they’re celebrating their 40th year of helping provide support, camaraderie and connection to the queer community and people living with/affected by HIV. They’re a fantastic charity and do so much for the Liverpool community – and whilst we might not be doing an event this December, Sahir definitely are!
You might have heard about their upcoming Snatch Game with a host of infamous drag artists, including Liverpool’s very own ice-skating queen The Vivienne! We’ve not got anything to do with this, but it’s a fun event for a good cause, and the people at Sahir have been so supportive of our Board Gaymes nights (and are even putting my dumb little blog post up on their website – thank you by the way!), so it feels like the least I can do is to plug their next event. You can check out the event page for the Snatch Game for Sahir by clicking here.*
*(Editor note: We didn’t ask them to write this, honest!)
As for us over at Board Gaymes? Well, we’ve got a few things in the pipeline – fundraisers, merch, and definitely more board games nights! The admin team are going to run these events until we’re wrinkly old gays in a retirement home gathered around a Scrabble board. We love these events, but we are just a small team of 4, with most of us having full time jobs alongside Board Gaymes. That’s why having the support from other queer organisations and communities in Merseyside, like Sahir, is so important to us – as queer people, our strength has always been in our community. We’re so thrilled that they’ve been so welcoming to us, and we’re looking forward to working more with them to help celebrate their 40th anniversary.
Sadly, our Cosy Night In was the last Board Gaymes of 2024. But hey, if you haven’t had a chance to attend one of our nights yet, don’t worry – we’ll be back to hosting in January, and we would love to see some new faces join us at Lovelocks. If you’d like to know when the next board Gaymes night is being held, you can join our Discord and chat to other Board Gaymers, follow us on Instagram or subscribe to our email newsletter The Board Gayzette to get updates straight to your inbox.
Alright, well! That’s all from me for now – but if you liked this piece and want me to keep you updated on all things Board Gaymes on a monthly basis, you can find me over at The Board Gayzette. Hope you all have a great December, and we’ll hopefully play a game or two together in the New Year!
Lots of love,
Ripley (they/them) x