Picarto
Korpscon is a weekend-long, adults-only streaming event in late August, hosted by Karen "Kraken" King and Iris "Distressed Egg" Jay and inspired by Ms. King's Korps story setting. It includes a variety of art streams, game streams and discussion panels that relate to the Korps universe, furries, supervillains, sensuality, and/or LGBTQ2S topics. It's also a weekend-long fundraiser to raise money for The 519, a non-profit LGBTQ2S community center that serves the Toronto queer community. 2021 will mark its third year of operation; KORPSCON 2, in 2020, raised over $20,000 CAD for The 519, with hopes to top that amount this year.
We'll be multistreaming Korpscon events through Ms. King's Picarto channel. Picarto is an artist-focused livestreaming service with easy-to-use multistreaming abilities and a permissive attitude towards erotica, making it perfect for our purposes. Watch this website and keep an eye on our Twitter account for future announcements regarding event scheduling.
The Korps is a fictional story setting created by Karen King. It's primarily centered around an diverse organization of queer furry supervillains, identifiable by their AR-enhanced pink eyewear (or "Rose Colored Glasses"), attempting to push back against an oppressive and unjust society. First introduced over ten years ago through character art Ms. King posted online, the Korps has since gained a growing and passionate community of fans, many of whom create new characters (or versions of existing characters) to exist in, and interact with, the world of the Korps. Ultimately, while Ms. King is still regarded as a foremost authority on prime canon, the Korps has become a collaborative storytelling space for a wide range of creators, including artists, writers, cartoonists, musicians and costume makers, as well as a community for queer furries of all kinds to express themselves.
Nope, it's just stylish geeky fun. Like cosplay, or renaissance faires, or drag. It's a sex thing for more than a few of our members, too-- capes and tights can be just as kinky as leather or latex.
There isn't really a sign-up list or anything-- all that's required is that you openly communicate an interest and participate in the community. If you've got a character you want to use in a Korps setting, it's as easy as popping a pair of pink glasses on them and thinking about what role you want them to play. Would they be out in the field, robbing banks, TF'ing bystanders and doing highly visible sexy evil things? Would they be mad scientists, researching new and sinister tools to achieve world domination? Would they be part of the Korps' sprawling support team, quietly kicking ass behind the scenes to keep the whole organization rolling along? Ultimately, it's up to you.
The 519 is a registered non-profit charity with the City of Toronto that aims to serve the Toronto LGBTQ2S community through various queer support programs, educational workshops, and dedicated space for community groups to organize. You can learn more about them on their website, and read their write up on Korpscon 2019here.
We're running our on-stream donations through popular donation service Tiltify this year, which means that attendees will be able to send their donations directly to The 519 via card or Paypal without their money having to go through KORPSCON staff first. It's less of a headache for everyone involved, and Tiltify's zero-fee policy means that The 519 will receive 100% of the money you send them. If you decide to donate through other means during the event, feel free to send the receipt to overlord@korpscon.com, and we'll add your donation to our grand total.
You know what? Okay. Let's get real for a moment.
Think about all the people in the world who put a lot of effort into convincing you they're "good" people. Politicians, religious leaders, celebrities, cops. How many of them really care, and how many of them are just covering their asses while reinforcing our society's deeply screwed up status quo? Meanwhile, queers have existed since our ancestors climbed down from the trees, and yet somehow in 2021 we still have to fight for the barest scraps of human dignity from the powers that be. We're encouraged to assimilate, to conform to what popular culture defines as "safe" representation, and to keep any deviance hidden from sight. Those of us without the luxury of passing as "normal" are treated as freaks and pariahs by our governments, our workplaces and our peers. How is any of this good? How is any of this worth fighting for?
Is it any wonder that, in the midst of unprecedented global chaos, hundreds of queer people have found catharsis and community in imagining what it'd be like if they had the power to push back and build something better? Or that, given the chance to actually make a real, tangible difference for an otherwise painfully underserved LGBTQ2S community, they'd take it in a heartbeat?
It's all just for fun, though. Just a little bit of kinky, campy Saturday morning cartoon fun. Right?