{"id":684,"date":"2012-08-02T22:02:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T22:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/index.php\/2012\/08\/02\/readerconharass\/"},"modified":"2012-08-02T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T22:02:14","slug":"readerconharass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/readerconharass\/","title":{"rendered":"“We interrupt our program…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Standby\"<\/span><\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/span><\/p>\n

ReaderCON Issued a public statement on 5 August, which you can read here:<\/span><\/p>\n

Public Statement by the Readercon Convention Committee<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But criteria below has been met and I’m seriously thinking about making an inquiry to join one of the committees outlined in the statement to help move the con back to a safe place to gather.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

#  #  #  #<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I need to take a moment away from the ongoing blog hop to address something that’s been really bothering me for a few days.<\/span><\/p>\n

For years you have all read about my love for the ReaderCON conferences I\u2019ve attended.  The people I have met, the friendships that have been forged and the unbelievable amount of knowledge I gained over each three-day period has been worth my time and my money.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as you well know.  Unfortunately, some have not.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m speaking of the sexual harassment incident this year I only found out about a couple of days ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

ReaderCON policy states that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Readercon has always had a zero-tolerance harassment policy.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Harassment of any kind \u2014 including physical assault, battery, deliberate intimidation, stalking, or unwelcome physical attentions \u2014 will not be tolerated at Readercon and will result in permanent suspension<\/span><\/b> of membership.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

As always, Readercon reserves the right to strip membership at its discretion.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

See that \u201cPermanent Suspension\u201d phrasing?  Yeah, that\u2019ll be important in a sec.<\/span><\/p>\n

The details of the incident are all over the internet and I\u2019ve included a fairly comprehensive list linked below.  But apparently the offender was only banned for two years, which is far less than \u201cpermanent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I have friends who have been harassed.  I\u2019ve personally pulled a \u201cSonny Corleone\u201d on a Jack Wagon who tried to force a woman I was dating at the time into a car (it involved a garbage can lid and that\u2019s all you need to know).<\/span><\/p>\n

And to give a two-year ban to someone, just because he\u2019s a \u201cpopular\u201d fan and an organizer of cons himself is in violation of policy and deplorable to boot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are the facts of this case different than what I\u2019ve read?  I don\u2019t know\u2026I didn\u2019t witness what happened first hand.  But I know personally people who did or know the victim in this case.<\/span><\/p>\n

When a policy is posted, then waived or bent in favor of someone just because of who he\/she is, well that\u2019s an epic fail.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m awaiting a proper public response from the folks who run the con.  But let me say this.  Under no circumstances should that behavior EVER be tolerated.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I want to see is an apology and a permanent ban of the \u201ccreep.\u201d  To start. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then I\u2019ll see if ReaderCON 24 is in my future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the many other blogs about this incident HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peace<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: ReaderCON Issued a public statement on 5 August, which you can read here: Public Statement by the Readercon Convention Committee But criteria below has been met and I’m seriously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c40-myblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}