Con Nooga
Chattanooga Convention Center
2/24/24
I didn’t expect to meet an exorcist at Con Nooga. But there she was: Jeni Tanner, in a homemade priest’s collar, sitting at a booth labeled “Demon Exorcisms.”
“I wanted to give people a place to write down what’s haunting them, and offer them a space to get it off of their chest,” she told me. And people were jumping right in, writing down their demons and posting them on a trifold board straight out of a middle-school science fair. A few were benign (“bad bosses”), but most went straight for the throat: “dysmorphia,” “PTSD,” “The entire B***** family,” and, of course, “Republicans.”
Con Nooga, held last weekend at the Chattanooga Convention Center, was packed with folks that Tennessee’s Republican supermajority is trying to legislate out of existence. Kids wrapped in pride flags that will likely be outlawed in schools this year, drag queens and burlesque performers, and trans folks freely using the correct bathroom for their gender. I had a question: What made Con Nooga such a popular place for the LGBTQ+ community?
“Something about cons,” said attendee Katie Esmond. “All of them are absolutely the most welcoming group that I’ve ever been a part of. It doesn’t matter your background, how you identify, anything like that. They will welcome you with open arms, 100 percent. And they will make sure that nothing puts you out of the spot that you are in.”
Con attendee Brett agreed, stating it’s “embracing whatever you’re into, whether it’s the Doctor Who or the Marvel Universe thing, to me it’s that openness vibe that makes the space to have those other conversations.”
There certainly were plenty of fandoms coexisting at Con Nooga. The Star Wars fans were there in force; I counted three lightsaber vendors. So were the anime folks, including a life-size No-Face from Spirited Away. There were LARPers and every multiversal Spider-entity I could remember except Spider-Ham. And within these fandoms, there was lots of flexibility and creativity. There was the person in a full beard and French maid outfit. There was the guy in a motorized wheelchair, dressed as The Flash. There was, somehow, a pirate-themed church service scheduled for Sunday morning. And as far as I could see, everyone was having a delightful time.
I wasn’t able to see all of Con Nooga. There was an 18+ area that featured burlesque (and boylesque) performers, panel discussions about various kinks, and vibrator races, which, I’m told, are exactly what they sound like. I was there with my kids, so I stayed in the all-ages area. But I did get to meet Polly Popjoy, a burlesque and drag producer from Memphis. She had been on a panel discussion about ethical non-monogamy the night before, and she was teaching a workshop on shibari, a Japanese bondage technique, that night. We met while our kids were in the same foam sword-building workshop. We talked about Tennessee’s drag ban (currently ruled unconstitutional, but appeals are ongoing), which she defied by hosting Polly’s Playground, “a kid-friendly drag show at a board game shop.” I asked if anyone there had been prosecuted for violating the drag ban, which was still in effect at the time.
“No one was, because it’s ungrounded,” she said. “It’s bullshit. It’s complete bullshit. Memphis isn’t gonna stop doing drag. Neither is Chattanooga, neither is the world. Nobody’s gonna stop Tennessee from being queer.” As we talked, the kids’ sword-fighting contest raged in the background. My youngest child made it to the semi-finals.
Eventually, I went to the restroom. I walked up to a urinal, saw something gross on the floor, and walked on to the next one. I thought about how easy it was for me to choose where to pee, and how complicated it was for so many others. But here at Con Nooga, it was no big deal. There was an 8x8 sign in the hallway declaring all restrooms to be all-gender. The biggest bathroom hassle was Spider-tights. It wasn’t that no one cared what bathroom people used; it was that they did care, and they wanted everyone to be welcomed as themselves.
After eight hours, a sword purchase, and a Lego-building contest (which my oldest child won), the kids and I headed home. As I said goodbye to my friend Jeremy, he casually mentioned the time he got in a fight with GWAR on stage at Dragon Con in Atlanta. “Techno Destructor hit me, and Slymenstra Hymen participated in the battle. We were running a Star Wars live action role playing game. The players gave us a standing ovation after the battle.” I thought of Katie Esmond, who had told me, “I could leave [my kids] in here by themselves. I would have no issue. The people in here, I trust. It’s wonderful.” And it all made perfect sense.
