On July 15, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) welcomed Gay Gaming Professionals (GGP) President Gordon Bellamy and the LGBT Congressional Staff Association for a reception to highlight the importance of diversity and the video game industry.
“When you play a game, everyone plays by the same rules and everyone is on equal footing for that moment in time,” Bellamy said. “It’s the universal appeal of games and something that has brought a lot of joy to me and millions of other players.”
In partnership with Gay Gaming Professionals, the ESA Foundation is building a pipeline of future video game professionals from the LBGTQ+ community that have traditionally not been represented in the industry. The LGBTQ+ Service Scholarship recognizes students pursuing a degree in video game creation, collegiate esports or content creation, but who also show a commitment to service in their local, regional and/or national LGBQ+ communities.
Since 2019, the ESA Foundation and Gay Gaming Professionals have awarded students the LGBTQ+ Service Scholarship to expand the commitment in creating a more diverse and socially engaged workforce. To date, the ESA Foundation has awarded more than 450 scholarships powering the dreams of underrepresented college-age students earning computer science and video game-related degrees. For more information, including how to apply, check out ESAFoundation.org/scholarships.
Bellamy has played key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFL Football, and MTV. Over a roughly 20-year career, he’s distinguished himself as a game designer, industry executive and leader, a professor at the University of Southern California and an LGBTQ+ advocate.
For more than 20 years, the ESA Foundation has been devoted to empowering the next generation of video game creators and fostering an industry in which those creators reflect the actual game players. As one of the nation’s fastest-growing economic sectors, the video game industry employs more than 220,000 people across all 50 states with increasing job opportunities on the horizon.
