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247Gay.com

Homogenius! The Gay Answer to Trivial Pursuit
May 11, 2007

By Dylan Vox,

Do you know in which film Karen Black played a transsexual? How about from where the saying "friend of Dorothy" comes? Well, if you don't, you better brush up on your gay history and fun facts because in the tradition of Trivial Pursuit, although no affiliation, there comes a new game called Homogenius that asks questions and introduces trivia tidbits that pertain solely to the gay community. The game offers a refreshing and interesting way to incite conversations and learn more about the gay community.

Homogenius™ is the creation of the Trani family from Manhasset, New York, who thought of the concept while playing regular trivial pursuit with an openly gay member of their family. I know what you are thinking, and the answer is yes, the family's last name is actually Trani, which only lends to the brilliance behind the inception of a game that celebrates gay culture and explores the contributions that gay personalities have made to theater, music, movies, TV, publishing and politics.
The mother of the clan, Marianne Trani would often gather her family around the dining room table to play board games, and her gay brother Charles Cardillo often pulled up a chair to join in with his nieces Allison and Chris.
At first, in a joking way, the girls would add a gay oriented response to their questions in order to amuse their Uncle Chuck.
"So a question that began with 'What famous person' became 'What famous homosexual'" Allison Trani told the Republican in an interview about the game.

The game play banter became a tradition in the household and as the girls began to delve more into gay culture, they discovered an entire world of trivia and facts pertaining to the gay community and decided to create a board game of their own.
Allison came up with the initial idea and Mom Marianne began to do the research. Now, fifteen years later, Homogenuis is finally ready for a mass market. Chris Trani, who took over the role of marketing and promotions, set up the website and has pushed the concept to a wider audience at pride and other gay events, but hopes to be able to appeal to a general audience in hopes that the game can also act an entertaining teaching tool for people to learn about gay culture.

The gay community loves it, but we want it to go mainstream because it's not just for gay people," Chris Trani relayed in her interview with the Republican. "Everyone can and should play it."

According to the website the object of the game, which comes packaged in a stylish trunk-like box, is to "come out of the closet" by correctly answering a series of gay trivia questions in two categories: Rumor and Potpourri. The first person to step completely out first wins. The facts and information within the questions of the game are not just entertaining, but also educational. Some questions will even stump the most knowledgeable historian of gay facts.

The game includes over 350 gay trivia and question cards and was named one of the Most Innovative New Board Game of the Year by Toy Directory Monthly. In conjunction with Gay Pride Month, the Trani's have announced a special promotion and will sell the game for $24.99, a ten dollar discount from it's original price.

The Trani's are also donating 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the game to benefit the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). GLAAD is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and proceeds from the game will help support their efforts.

It is a great cause, and it is inspiring to see people working to help educate the public about gay history. Leave it to the Trani's to create an entertaining way to give back to the community.

Detroit Free Press

Relationship roulette

October 5, 2006

In what movie did a character hold up a bank to pay for his lover's sex-change operation? Which singer-songwriter posed naked with her girlfriend in a PETA ad?

If you said "Dog Day Afternoon" and Melissa Etheridge, you're on your way to winning Homogenius, a new board game that celebrates gay life.

The trivia game -- OK to play with your mother, creators promise -- covers personalities, entertainment, publishing and politics.

Echelon Online Newsletter

June 28, 2006

Homogenius, the gay trivia board game, celebrates gay culture and explores the contributions that gay personalities have made to theater, music, movies, television, publishing and politics.

The object of this board game, which comes packaged in a stylish trunk-like box, is to “come out of the closet” by correctly answering a series of gay trivia questions in two categories: Rumor and Potpourri. Players start “In the Closet” and whoever gets “Out of the Closet” first wins. The game includes 355 question cards,6 game tokens, 1 die and a colorful game board.

"In what movie did a character hold up a bank to pay for his gay lover’s sex change operation? (Dog Day Afternoon)

PrideParenting.com

Let the Gay-mes Begin
by Ronni Radner

It’s certainly no secret that queers of all stripes are lovers of puzzles and games. The brilliant documentary Wordplay (out on DVD November 7) featured not only an openly gay crossword-puzzle constructor (Trip Payne, whose puzzles have graced the pages of Games magazine, among other publications) but also a segment with the dynamic dyke duo the Indigo Girls, who declare their fondness for working on that “Cadillac of Crosswords,” the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

Board games are a tradition in the GLBT community too. Who hasn’t sat with several of their best buds and played a rousing round of Trivial Pursuit (obviously a homo game, what with its rainbow of pie pieces and the entertainment categories always in pink), Taboo, Scattergories, Balderdash, or Scrabble? At New York’s GLBT Center, a queer group with the moniker Board Stiff meets regularly for gaming get-togethers and a little healthy competition.

As a bona fide board-gaming geek and someone who has worked in GLBT media for quite some time and has a good knowledge of queer culture, I was excited to hear about the new board game Homogenius: The Game, which bills itself as “the gay and lesbian trivia game.” Players start the game “in the closet”; the board features depictions of items typically found in a gay man’s (or maybe a lesbian couple’s) closet, like cowboy boots, heels, athletic gear, and fluffy slippers. The object of the game, which comes in a really cool, trunklike box, is to “come out of the closet” by answering the most trivia questions correctly before your opponents.

For some inexplicable reason, question cards (there are 355 in all) are divided into “Rumor” and “Potpourri,” but many of the “Rumor” cards aren’t about rumors at all (Q: Who plays the mother of Jack McFarland’s biological son on Will & Grace? A: Rosie O’Donnell).

Some of the “Rumor” cards could’ve stood a little fact-checking too; one card poses the question, “What lesbian author wrote Lesbian Out of Carolina?” (Gee, we’ve never heard of that book, but it was award-winning author Dorothy Allison who wrote the brilliant novel Bastard Out of Carolina.)

Some of the “Potpourri” cards aren’t much better: There’s the uninformed definition “A lesbian who prefers male dress,” to which the provided answer is “butch.” (Do we really have to point to stars like the aforementioned Rosie O’Donnell, who probably shops at Lane Bryant and in the women’s section of Old Navy, to explain to the question’s author that butches don’t necessarily wear men’s clothing?)

Then there’s the guffaw-inducing party question, “What does a protease inhibitor lower?” A: HIV blood levels. That’s a fun stumper, eh? Hey, who doesn’t enjoy their prescription medication trivia? If you really want a shot at winning the game, just bone up on your Will & Grace; there are about a half-dozen “Who plays so-and-so on Will & Grace?” questions.

To be fair, I should note that the game was not actually created by queers; it was invented by a straight-but-not-narrow woman named Marianne Trani, who wanted a fun game to play with her gay brother. Ms. Trani gets an A for her effort, and we surely love homo-friendly heteros, but the game is poorly executed, loaded with embarrassing errors, and old-fashioned (most female comics really preferred to be called “comedians” rather than “comediennes” these days).

This game player’s gonna stick with Trivial Pursuit to get her piece of the pie.