The SF3 Board's An Apology

[james_davis_nicoll]

The SF3 Board extends heartfelt apologies to those who have been harassed at WisCon, to those who feel unsafe at WisCon, to the ConCom, and to our wider community, for letting you down. We regret allowing Rose Lemberg’s report to languish.

Comments

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I no longer attend enough conventions to make no never-mind, but my guess is that WisCon is probably the safest convenion of its size in the country (and I don't limit this to Science-Fiction Conventions, assuming that the one of Baptist Ministers' Wives is somewhat smaller). Frankly, I think that if they continue to (as they seem to be doing) attempt to make it _absolutely Safe_ they'll descend into total collapse. But then, I also think that it's impossible to get more than about fifty people together without having at least one knucklehead, and that it's irrational (& maybe even knuckleheaded) to believe otherwise.

For Full Disclosure: If memory serves, I've attended two WisCons and one or two other cons in Madison put on by pretty much the same people. They were delightful, but I don't expect to get back there because I'm getting too old to cope with air travel and because having become "profoundly deaf" has seriously diminished my pleasure in the con experience. Also, being totally deaf has caused me to pay a lot more visual attention to the people around me, and I suppose that would freak-out at least one or two WisCon attendees.

[redbird]

Do you really think it's more chaotic to kick someone out for sexual harassment and physical assault than to ignore the incidents because the perpetrator is a pro editor and long-time member of the community? The problem isn't that a group of more than 50 will contain at least one knucklehead; it's deciding that therefore you'll accept an unlimited number of knuckleheads rather than tell people to leave if they are harassing people at meetings of the group.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

If by "Absolutely Safe", you mean "cease to tolerate BNFs who physically threaten attendees", I'm thinking it's not going to lead to Imminent Death of Fandom Predicted, Film At 11.

An If This Goes On argument is exceptionally ill-founded when what *was* going on, both to Lemberg and to those harassed by Frenkel, should not have been tolerated at any convention.

" I suppose that would freak-out at least one or two WisCon attendees." Unless you practice the newly-invented art of breast-reading, I think you'd be safe.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

absolutely safe no longer a long-standing consequence-free safe haven for known predators.

Fixed that for you.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thanks. I hadn't understood that his actions had been so serious or so long-standing. Of course, I'm now wondering why the police hadn't been called in long before, and why he hadn't already been banned by this convention and other ones. I think, however, that I'll be better off continuing to wonder.

And mayhap my confidence in the ConCom of this convention was overly-influenced by my admiration for the people who put on the earlier ones. I do note, however, that I've worked on enough conventions to know how easy it is for something like a letter or even the fact of a serious complaint to get mislaid between one year and the next.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

"Once is unfortunate, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action" is the phrase that springs to mind.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Natalie Luhrs can bring you up to speed.

overly-influenced by my admiration for the people who put on the earlier ones

This is exactly what got WisCon (and, before it, ReaderCon, and the list is long) in trouble. Prioritizing "I know X, and respect X" over "Person Y says that X misbehaved" is what lets people continue misbehaving year after year after year. People who have built up social credit can still harass other people, can still mysteriously lose evidence, can still behave extremely badly. Sadly, many Xs behave kindly and appropriately to their friends, and badly in other contexts.

We all owe it to our communities -- and to ourselves -- to have our first reaction to claims of harassment to be "I should evaluate the evidence" and not "But I know the harasser!"

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

We all owe it to our communities -- and to ourselves -- to have our first reaction to claims of harassment to be "I should evaluate the evidence" and not "But I know the harasser!"

This is about more than Frenkel and harassment, BTW (not that Frenkel wasn't bad enough already).

Walter Breen was not the last of his kind; fandom has to start taking this shit seriously or there are going to be a lot more "heartfelt apologies" in the future.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to downplay Rose Lemberg's experiences (or others). There's a lot that's being overlooked.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I wonder how many cons and fan organisations in the last year have given any serious thought to "how do we prevent the next Breen from happening?"