Welcome to the Hop for Visibility, Awareness and Equality

Hi! Welcome to the Hop for Visibility Awareness and Equality. You might know us as the Hop Against Homophobia, Bi and Transphobia. 

As you can see, we have a new name, and a new mission statement. We are all very excited about the changes. We have a few new organizers that have all been working hard with us throughout this transition.

Look for the 2016 Badges on the tab at the top of the page.

Signup for the Hop

Please follow the directions below to sign up for the blog hop.
Thank you

Please note that the participation requirements have changed as of 4/25/2016

Dates:

Sign-ups for the Hop for Visibility, Awareness and Equality will end on May 10th.
The hop begins on May 17th and runs through May 24th. 

Participation requirements:

To sign up for the Hop you must be an author, publisher, reviewer, or cover designer of LGBTQ fiction *with below noted exception* (you do not have to write, publish, review, or cover design LGBTQ works exclusively) and provide a link to your blog and active email address. That's it!

We encourage you to mention the blog in its lead-up. We'll be doing our part in promoting the event, but the more people talk about it, the bigger and better it will be.

*EXCEPTION* For the first time this year we are allowing those that write and review exclusively cisgender M/F to participate as Allies. Please, if you are participating as an ally, keep in mind that you are promoting Visibility for, Awareness of, and Equality for those who fall under the rainbow umbrella. You may be able to reach people that those of us who live under the umbrella might not have access to. You're an invaluable resource in our fight for equality, and we value your contributions to that goal. If you have questions about anything, or simply want a fresh pair of eyes to check that your blog content for the hop is going to be helpful in attaining that goal, we're more than happy to assist.

What participating entails:

Participating requires that you post a post on your blog for the hop on May 17, 2015. The post must include:

» The Umbrella or Raindrop  image, with a link to the official hop site:http://hopforvisibilityawarenessandequality.blogspot.com/

» Note that it's the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia in the post, and include a topic that relates to LGBTQ.

» An LGBTQ-related prize, such as donations in the winner's name, paperbacks or ebooks (your own or someone else's), swag, t-shirts, or anything you like that is connected to the LGBTQ community.

» Links to the other blog participants (we'll offer a code that you can put at the bottom of your post to link to multiple other participants).

We'll be sending out a reminder email with all the specifics once we get closer to the kick-off date of the hop, so watch your email in May.

Restrictions:

» Any direct links to sales pages will be removed. You must link to your blog.

» We expect that those who sign up will be legitimately interested in participating in a positive manner. Therefore, those who sign up to express negative views of the hop will be removed from the links.

» Your post must be up no later than one day after May 17th. If your post isn't up on the 18th, you will receive a reminder. If the post isn't up by the 19th, your link will be removed. You can pre-schedule posts in most (if not all) blog programs, and we encourage you to do so.

When you sign up:

Please provide a correct link to your blog and an active email address.

Please use the following indicators behind your names (i.e. NJ Nielsen (M/M)), whichever applies:

» Gay: (M/M) or (GAY)

» Lesbian: (F/F) or (LES) 

» Trans: (TR)

» Genderqueer/Nonbinary: (NB)

» Bi: (BI) - M/F/M and F/M/F are not bi if there's no romantic/sexual interaction between the same sexes.

» Asexual (ACE) 

» Reviewers: (REV)

» Publishers: (PUB)

» Cover designers: (DES)

» Multiple pairings: (MULTI) - or list what you do, e.g. (M/M, F/F, REV). This option is for those who write e.g. M/M and Trans stories. 

» Allies:(ALLY)- While you do not write or review LGBTQ+ fiction, you are an ally to our community and wish to promote Visibility, Awareness and Equality for all. 

Finally:

Those who add the Umbrella or Raindrop badge to the sidebar of their blog and keep it there until the hop starts will be added to our blog roll. The blog roll will stay up until next year. Please promote the event to your readers and fellow writers to help make this hop a success.

You can grab your badges here.

Have any questions? Feel free to email us at undertheumbrellahop@gmail.com