[ST] vericon guest announcement

[Rick Y. Kovalcik]

--- Buzz Harris <buzz_harris at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- "Rick Z. Kovalcik" <rk at mit.edu> wrote:
> > --- David D'Antonio <dda at dantonio.net> wrote:
> > > Or do cons take the attitude that they are
> > > honouring his SF  
> > > work rather than his non-SF opinions/beliefs?
> > > 
> > > DDA
> > 
> > I believe that was pretty much the argument Boskone
> > used.  
> > 
> > -RKOV
> > Rick Kovalcik
> 
> Yes, I heard that argument from Boskone concomm people
> at the time (and today as well, over in the
> Vericon_fans lj page).  It is neither a persuasive nor
> a reassuring position.
> 
> When you invite someone to an event as your honored
> guest, you get the whole person, with all of the good
> and bad baggage attached.  It may be that the
> issuer(s) of the invitation do not consider the bad
> baggage to be important.  That does not, though,
> magically make it go away.  In this sense, it is a
> rather naive argument.
> 
> That position can also say "I did not know about it,"
> which may certainly be true.  At that point the issue
> becomes, how do you respond?  If the response is, as
> it was from a number of Boskone folks, "Well, we did
> not know about that, but now that we do we're telling
> you that we're only inviting him because we like his
> SF writing," that has gone beyond naivete.  That
> translates to "OK, you educated us.  Thanks.  Now we
> are telling you that we do not care."  Gee, thanks.  
> 
> Withdrawing the invitation would have been nice.  Even
> "Yikes, we did not know.  We're very sorry about that,
> but we've already issued the invitation and do not
> feel able to withdraw it," would have been better as
> well.  I would not have liked the answer, but it would
> have been better than "It does not matter to us."
> 
> And that is indeed the message that came from Boskone
> when they invited Card.  "Yes, we know or we know now,
> and we do not care."  I was quite surprised that they
> were surprised when GSFS responded to that answer by
> protesting Card's presence as GOH with an open letter
> at the con.
> 
> It may not matter to YOU, but it matters a great deal
> to other people in the fannish community.  Card is not
> just personally anti-gay.  That I could give a pass
> to.   There are other writers who are as well.  He has
> gone out of his way to publicly insult us, demean us
> and our families, and to advocate for our legal and
> political persecution *in writing*.
> 
> As I said, it is neither a persuasive nor a reassuring
> argument.  It is, in fact, an insulting one.
> 
> Buzz

For the record I wasn't trying to justify their (Boskone) actions.  
Once they picked Card, they were pretty fubared.   And the people
involved (as well as of a lot of other fen), can be pretty thick-headed
/ stubborn / insensitive.  IMHO, they could have handled it better on
many levels.