eurOut's birthday party in Hamburg - Meet Up & Concert Pics

By Sandra Showtime on Friday, September 18, 2009 - 03:37

The founding of eurOut was a year ago? Yes, one year. Yes, you are already that old…er, nevermind.

On September 12 (2008) we launched a site called eurOut.com. It was bold, it was new, it was us…

Let’s be honest, our TVs and the websites we visit are filled with American content and news. We love it. Another part to be honest about. But sometimes, just sometimes, it pains a little, doesn’t it?

Europe does have its own productions, its own icons and most importantly…its own spirit. Americans love it, why don’t we?

It all started with AfterEllen.com. When I visited it for the first time and just couldn’t understand why everyone was so excited about being lesbian. But the passion of a woman called Sarah Warn captured me and since then I have a dream…

A European lesbian community is only a dream so far. We don’t even know what Europe means besides the geographical definition. Everything is so new, not even the EU Parliament and the countries its build from seem to be constant in its rulings. But does EU equal European and does European equal EU? I don’t know. And it’s not the only thing I don’t have a clue about.

With the idea to create something for Europe what was created for the U.S. with AfterEllen.com I didn’t know what I got myself into. I was used to lead teams and individuals from my work as a psychologist and I was arrogant enough to think it would be similar. It wasn’t, it isn’t…

What does it mean to be an editor? A professional lesbian, a fighter for equality or … to create awareness for the non-existence of equality for that matter?! I didn’t know, I still don’t know.

The knowledge about pulling up a site technically, writing articles, doing web marketing…it all comes from Google. We would love to do so much more, so much faster.  But we are still learning.

I tend to be rather negative. I hear your wishes, I know my own. Everything doesn’t go fast enough, everything could be better. Due to this I often miss what you actually appreciate a lot: we do exist.

65.000 unique visitors per month. No money but our own. No professional support.  2 editors with day jobs. 3 regular writers with day jobs. 2 vloggers with day jobs. And I, without a day job because I gave it up for eurOut.

What we share is passion and the belief in entertainment and politics that can be about us, the mostly forgotten ‘L’ and ‘B’ in the LGBT. We do exist, eurOut proves it.

And in all the seriousness, in all the hard work and the “WTF am I doing here???” there’s joy and love. Something that was to experience on our first birthday on September 12.

We celebrated it with a Meet Up with writers, editors and fans and a concert of the British all-girl, all-queer band Greymatter in Hamburg.

It was amazing to be there, to meet all of you. For now, we’ll share some pictures which were taken by Maxime68, @Queenofbiscuit and Greymatter. But there are more posts and videos for you as well.

They are processing… like we are.

No need to make excuses. We don’t have any money. We don’t have a lot of help. We don’t know what we are doing until we are doing it. But guess what? We are doing it!

There was pulled up eurOut.com, your website for European lesBian news in entertainment and politics. Your community. There was a Meet Up and a concert, organized out of nothing. And the reason for that is you. You and your rights, your pleasure, your beliefs. Ours.

Hamburg, September 12. We are what we love, what we are protecting.

Stay tuned!

Sandra Showtime & Queenofbiscuit

Saskia & Sanne from 'Lesbians caught on video'

Greymatter & Sandra Showtime

Rochelle Dancel (Producer of B.J. Fletcher), Saskia, Sanne

Tedoe, writer of euRgeek, behind the bar

Sandra Showtime, Shirin Papillon (Founder of OneMoreLesbian.com), Natazzz

Soundcheck-break with Greymatter

Greymatter-manager Helen, busy as usual

Greymatter concert for eurOut's first birthday

Brunch the next morning

Interview for 'Lesbians caught on video' with Greymatter

Check back for more pictures, posts and some videos later this week. Thanks to all for making our first birthday such a great experience! See you soon again!