Elizabeth Moon dropped from Wiscon
I've been following this s-storm, popcorn at the ready, despite its seriousness.
For those not in the know, Wiscon is a major feminist SF convention in the US, and Elizabeth Moon was to be the 2011 Guest of Honour.
Recently she made an LJ post about the "Mosque at Ground Zero" palaver/hysteria reaction, (INCLUDING: ITS ALL A TAKEOVER PLOT BY OSAMA, M'KAY!) followed by some sweeping negative comments on how bad Islam is/was/will be.
http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/335480.html
Not outright hate speech exactly, just generalistic and knee-jerky and "I've listened to too much Rush Limbaugh". Whatever opinions people hold in the relative circle of their LJs is just that, confined to the hermetically sealed environment of the personal journal. It doesn't make them bad people, but it does tell which team you're batting for.
The problem was that she was also the GOH at a major Feminist convention. And a goodly number of con-goers are also Muslim, or a "brown person who will be lumped in the same category and possibly even villified for that". So this made a lot of people uncomfortable, and so it was written:
http://nojojojo.livejournal.com/223115.html (for the best example)
So after many words were written on the relevance of having Moon at a con which was not up her alley - opinion wise - the concom dropped her from the GOH spot.
Although there has been anger from those who say "witch-hunt" and "the lesbians will be next!" [http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=9663] I personally think the disinvitation was the best course of action. Firstly, it would have been unfair to have had Moon defend such a position from a GOH perspective. (Easier to have been just a panel guest debating an opposing idea). And a GOH spot is rather like the uber-convention ideal (including the Wiscon companion ideals of racial and gender tolerance etc, etc) which would not have been appropriate for a person holding reverse viewpoints.
People don't go to conventions to be idealogically challenged, really, we go for the intellectual safe-space they provide. Cons are not the place for big paradigm shifts, fortunaely or unfortunately!
For those not in the know, Wiscon is a major feminist SF convention in the US, and Elizabeth Moon was to be the 2011 Guest of Honour.
Recently she made an LJ post about the "Mosque at Ground Zero" palaver/hysteria reaction, (INCLUDING: ITS ALL A TAKEOVER PLOT BY OSAMA, M'KAY!) followed by some sweeping negative comments on how bad Islam is/was/will be.
http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/335480.html
Not outright hate speech exactly, just generalistic and knee-jerky and "I've listened to too much Rush Limbaugh". Whatever opinions people hold in the relative circle of their LJs is just that, confined to the hermetically sealed environment of the personal journal. It doesn't make them bad people, but it does tell which team you're batting for.
The problem was that she was also the GOH at a major Feminist convention. And a goodly number of con-goers are also Muslim, or a "brown person who will be lumped in the same category and possibly even villified for that". So this made a lot of people uncomfortable, and so it was written:
http://nojojojo.livejournal.com/223115.html (for the best example)
So after many words were written on the relevance of having Moon at a con which was not up her alley - opinion wise - the concom dropped her from the GOH spot.
Although there has been anger from those who say "witch-hunt" and "the lesbians will be next!" [http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=9663] I personally think the disinvitation was the best course of action. Firstly, it would have been unfair to have had Moon defend such a position from a GOH perspective. (Easier to have been just a panel guest debating an opposing idea). And a GOH spot is rather like the uber-convention ideal (including the Wiscon companion ideals of racial and gender tolerance etc, etc) which would not have been appropriate for a person holding reverse viewpoints.
People don't go to conventions to be idealogically challenged, really, we go for the intellectual safe-space they provide. Cons are not the place for big paradigm shifts, fortunaely or unfortunately!