Uplift

Campaigns

Elephant At The Con

Elephant At The Con is our campaign by Uplift dedicated to shining a light on convention safety issues by collecting attendee stories and quantitative data on abuse and harassement at conventions with the goal of creating action plans for organizers to improve in the future.

View the Reports

The Elephant At MAGFest 2018

March 2018

At Uplift we understand the power of communities and work with organizers like MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival) to ensure that these important communities are safe for everyone. With this in mind, we conducted a survey of MAGFest 2018 attendees on safety and inclusion.

The Elephant At VidCon 2017

June 2017

Just over a year ago, Uplift kicked off Elephant at the Con, a project dedicated to collecting data and uplifting survivor stories to shed light on harassment, abuse, and inclusion issues at conventions, compare the data from 2016 and 2017.

The Elephant At VidCon 2016

June 2016

Our main initiative for the conference was to shed a light on the issues and uplift survivor stories. With this in mind, we launched Elephant At The Con, a survey about con safety and demographics...

The Elephant at Tekko

April 2017

While the percentages are certainly in a good range, it is important to remember that every instance of verbal, physical, or sexual harassment had an impact on attendees and even one incident is too many.

The Elephant at NerdCon: Nerdfighteria

March 2017

In celebration of ten years of Vlogbrothers and the Nerdfighteria community, Nerdfighters from all over the world gathered in Boston, MA for a weekend celebrating the wonderful community John and Hank Green have created.

Woman in a Yes All Witches shirt poses in front of the Uplift booth.

The Elephant At GeekyCon: Stories

August 2016

...These policies and elements at Geeky demonstrate a commitment of the con staff and many of the exhibitors to making the con safe for trans and genderqueer attendees, but unfortunately incidents still occurred.

Woman smiles in front of the Uplift booth.

The Elephant At GeekyCon: Data

August 2016

...The demographics of those surveyed, less than 13% cis male and more than 58% LGBTQIA+ highlight why many attendees feel that cons like GeekyCon are their safe spaces. Racial diversity, at least in those surveyed, is lacking and absolutely an area where improvement is needed.

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Safer Community Pledge 2.0

At LeakyCon ‘19, we asked fans to make a pledge to change their communities for the better. Over 200 people took the pledge in-person and received specific resources to help them make progress.

No Magic In Abuse

The upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and the continuation of stories in the Harry Potter universe has been darkened by the continued casting of Johnny Depp as a major character (Grindelwald), despite domestic abuse allegations.

Love Not Potions

We all love the Harry Potter series, but critiquing the Canon that shaped the culture of a generation for making light of rape, encouraging slut shaming, and romanticizing deeply unhealthy relationships is well within our right as fans. When many of us read the books as children and teenagers, many of the subtleties may have been lost on us. But now that we are older, many of the problematic elements become evident and it is our obligation to show that we do not condone this behavior in the wizarding society or in our own. Trivializing serious concepts like this has a serious affect on survivors who may doubt that anyone would believe their stories and on perpetrators who discover that their actions will not be seen as the crimes that they are.

Cosplayers at LeakyCon 2016 visited the Uplift Booth to speak out against rape culture in the Harry Potter series.

Safer Community Pledge

Big movements start with individuals. When many people make small changes in their personal lives, we create a place that’s safer and better for everyone. The Safer Community Pledge reached over 95,000 people on YouTube, Tumblr, and Facebook and was a simple step people could take to stand up against sexual violence and harassment. This pledge encouraged us to make small changes in our personal lives and continue to discuss this critical issue. Take the pledge yourself here!

I pledge that I will always prioritize consent. I understand that consent is the presence of an enthusiastic yes rather than the absence of a no; and that consent cannot be given when someone is asleep or physically or mentally incapacitated.
I pledge that I will respect my partner’s wishes, and that I will not pressure or coerce them into doing anything that makes them uncomfortable.
I pledge to stand with survivors of sexual abuse or harassment by showing them compassion and respect.
I pledge to never blame the victim for any abuse they’ve experienced. Sexual violence is never the victim’s fault.
I pledge to admit when I make mistakes, and to apologize for my actions. When someone tells me that I’ve said something sexist, victim-blaming, or otherwise offensive, I pledge to be open to their words.
I pledge to support conversations surrounding sexual abuse and harassment in a way that is respectful of my needs and the needs of those I am speaking with.
I pledge to create safer communities, both online and off.

Sign It

Uplift Outloud

In April of 2016, Uplift hosted a livestreamed day of empowerment and solidarity, where the members of the community stood united in a shared passion to stop sexual violence.