So remember just a couple weeks ago when I was all excited about getting on the World Fantasy Convention programming for the first time?
And then the refund deadline passed, but that was okay because of course I was going this year?
And then the WFC convention committee released their “harassment policy”? (Screenshot courtesy of Natalie Luhrs).
And suddenly I went from being excited to feeling like I’d been thrown under the bus.
The placeholder policy on the website (screenshot from this morning) was vague and useless, but not actively destructive the way this one is. I’d expected so much better. WFC overall has been working to improve their handling of incidents, and last year’s policy was pretty good. I expected this year to be the same. NOPE.
Here’s more from Natalie Luhrs, from John Scalzi, and from Jim Hines. I’m not going to repeat the insightful things they’ve already said, except to agree that this is bullshit.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do.
My only sunk costs are the (pricy) registration fees; I was planning to drive, and can cancel my hotel reservation. Or I can request to be removed from programming, and just hang out in the bar with my friends. Or I can go anyway, since it’s next week and kind of late to change my plans, but I’m unhappy with that because this “policy” is worse than no policy, and I signed on to the pledge to only attend conventions that have good harassment policies.
Or WFC could fix their own mess, but I’m not holding my breath.
