Merry Clownmas (Charity Announcement)

And a wacky new year :)

DashCon 2’s Charity Fundraiser

In 2025, DashCon 2 supported the Canadian Cancer Society, as co-founder Avis’ mom was diagnosed with cancer. The goal of that fundraising effort was to transform DashCon 2 into a meaningful way, however small, to lend a hand in that fight. Fortunately she is in remission, and for the moment all is well. We are forever grateful.

However, we’ve known for a while that we wanted to change our charity of choice. It’s a diverse world out there, and there are so many charities doing great work that need our support. We’ve thought about it long and hard, and after the stress our community has gone through this past year, there was really only one option.

DashCon 2 will be supporting Rainbow Railroad in 2026.

Rainbow Railroad is a charity that helps LGBTQ+ people escape persecution and rebuild their lives in safe places. Queer people face state-sponsored persecution in over sixty countries, and the loss of USAID put even more queer people at risk.

Rainbow Railroad helps queer folks resettle in Canada and the United States, but recent swings in the political climate have made the latter more complicated. They are closely monitoring the situation, and have launched a few new programs to support at-risk migrants that have already resettled in North America. These include providing cash grants to migrants in need and for the grassroots organizations supporting them.

The entire DashCon 2 staff team is queer. Many are trans. Were we unluckier in the place of our birth, Rainbow Railroad might have been our one and only lifeline. As Canadians, we want to extend a hand to queer people in need of a safe place to rebuild. DashCon 2 seeks to be a safe place for a bunch of gay weirdos for a weekend—we’d like to maintain that safe place for longer, and this is how we do it.

If you feel so moved, you can donate at the link below.

Since it’s Christmas, I’ll write a little more personally.

This is Simone, one of the co-founders—most of these newsletters are written by me. While working on DashCon 2 has been a dream, this year has been really fucking hard. For Americans, even harder. Often, it is hard to keep a steady mind.

Legally speaking, I’m an American citizen. (Dual, my parents are Canadian, but I was born in the States.) I always maintained that I’d never use the passport; I don’t fuck with guns, and I’d like to visit the hospital without forking over my life’s savings. But I’ve never renounced it, and despite everything happening over the border, I won’t.

I’m not giving up on America. There will always be hope. There will always be people doing good work, trying their best to make the world a better place. Rainbow Railroad does it every day. In my own way, I want to do that with DashCon 2. The queer spirit will never die, and the call to action will never cease. If you want to join us, the door will always be open. Trump can take my passport from my cold dead hands.

Christmas just so happens to be my birthday. Two days from now, I will turn twenty-two. While it’s not the best day to have a birthday, we play the cards we’re dealt, and I am very grateful to have all of you in my life for two of my most important days at once. Thank you for believing in my completely insane convention plan—for believing in me.

Merry Clownmas :)

With love,

Simone