Powered by Meta, the new installment of the Metaverse Culture Series, Dream House, brings LGBTQ+ leaders inside the metaverse to talk about the issues facing their community today.

As the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/the-sandbox-launches-lofficiel-land-virtual-space-metaverse-web3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">metaverse</a> becomes a larger topic of conversation across industries, Tess Holliday is diving head first into the virtual reality space to use her platform and speak on issues within the LGBTQ+ community. This <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/pride-month-2022-fashion-collections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pride Month</a>, the model/activist joined stylist Law Roach, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/jameela-jamil-dashaun-wesley-discuss-ballroom-culture-why-representation-matters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legendary</a>'s Leiomy, WNBA star Renee Mongomery, and Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition David J Johns for the latest installment of the Metaverse Culture Series: Dream House.&nbsp;
Hosted in Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms, the panel is set in a custom "Dream House" inspired by ballroom culture, a historic element of the LGBTQ+ community. During the course of their conversation, the group touches on topics from the safety of trans individuals within and outside of the metaverse to recognizing and giving space to Black and Brown members of the community.
Prior to the panel's premiere today, L'OFFICIEL traversed to the metaverse to speak with Holliday about representation, honoring the origins of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/pride-parade-photo-history-lgbtq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pride</a>, and how the metaverse creates space for authenticity.

L'OFFICIEL: Is this your first experience with the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/nfts-luxury-fashion-collaborations-gucci-louis-vuitton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">metaverse</a>? How has it been so far?
TESS HOLLIDAY: Last week, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Metaverse Culture Series, The Pride Unbound. So it was with me, Leiomy, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/law-roach-hollywood-stylist-zendaya-anya-taylor-joy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Law Roach</a>, and two other incredible folks: Dr. David Jones and [Renee Montgomery] and I just felt really fortunate. I was meeting all of these titans as avatars, but we all really felt the same way. We felt safe. It was such an intimate conversation, and obviously in this space, but at the end of it, we had all just bonded because, this is all new, but we felt like we could have really important conversations in a safe space, so it was really cool. 
L'O: Dream House is inspired by <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/history-gay-nightlife-nyc-clubs-drag-ball" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ballroom culture</a>. Do you have a personal connection to ballroom culture?
TH: I don&rsquo;t personally. I wish I did. I grew up watching it. I did the deep dive on Youtube watching all the videos. I loved <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/pose-best-fashion-moments-final-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pose</a>. I am friends with Trace Lysette who was definitely a part of the early movement, and I just think it&rsquo;s such a beautiful thing and I&rsquo;m so glad it&rsquo;s getting more representation in the mainstream now because it&rsquo;s so important. 
L'O: You are someone that has made so many women, and also people in general, feel represented, especially within the fashion industry. Has there ever been a time when you saw someone and felt represented?
TH: You know, for me growing up, it was hard because I didn&rsquo;t personally&mdash;there was really anybody I felt like encapsulated myself. I think that&rsquo;s part of the reason, especially like actual&mdash;well, let&rsquo;s say this, on my right arm I have Ms. Piggy tattooed on me and Divine, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/is-dolly-parton-a-feminist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolly Parton</a>, Mae West. So for me, those folks I felt represented in, but I mean Ms. Piggy, whatever she&rsquo;s represented in my head, but it wasn&rsquo;t really there and I didn&rsquo;t feel super represented and I feel like now more than ever when I look around, I feel more representation as a queer, fat, femme than I ever have and it&rsquo;s really cool that I&rsquo;ve been a part of shifting that. Because now I think that there are so many young folks that get to look around and pick from the folks that they identify with, so that&rsquo;s exciting.

Metaverse Culture Series: Pride Unbound

L'O: In the panel, you spoke about honoring the origins of Pride and queer culture by putting Black and Brown voices first and not taking up space where a person of color could or should be. How do you think the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/metaverse-artists-nfts-digital-reality-art-web3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">metaverse</a> allows for that?
TH: I think that this is new technology and the fact that the team that I was working with had so many Black and Brown folks behind it, building this, creating it, and I really hope that it creates a space where they finally get to create something that&mdash;societially, because of white supremacy and how our country was set up, it was taken from them. So I really am excited about all of this. I think that it&rsquo;s new, it&rsquo;s exciting, it&rsquo;s way overdue, and I think that it definitely gives, hopefully, a safe space for people to just be and not have to worry about a lot of the things that they encounter in the real world. But this is real, so I guess, you know what I am? Just building those connections. 
L'O: Another point that was touched on during the panel was about how the metaverse allows us to have conversations and be ourselves while maintaining a physical safety that isn&rsquo;t always guaranteed IRL. Is that something that attracts you to the metaverse?
TH: Absolutely. Some of my closest friends are Black trans women and trans folks and I think about their safety all of the time. Black trans women are&mdash;we lose so many of them, especially last year and this year have been the deadliest, and just being able to be in this world and know that they can exist and not have to worry about their safety hopefully nearly as much feels like&mdash;what's the word I&rsquo;m looking for? I was going to say &ldquo;a breath of fresh air,&rdquo; but I feel like that just downplays it. I just feel like maybe it&rsquo;s a way to protect them. 
L'O: From your perspective, how can tech companies improve the metaverse to further this idea of self-expression and representation?
TH: I think first and foremost it comes from who&rsquo;s working at the companies and who&rsquo;s behind the scenes. If you don&rsquo;t have diverse people that are working at the company and behind the scenes, then the metaverse is not going to be diverse. It&rsquo;s going to fall prey to exactly what&rsquo;s happened with other brands and companies in tech that we&rsquo;ve seen. I don&rsquo;t work with jobs and brands that I know don&rsquo;t have diverse people at, and that they&rsquo;re not actively putting back into the community, so that&rsquo;s really how we fix it.

Tess Holliday Celebrates Pride Month in the Metaverse Culture Series: Dream House

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