SF writer John Scalzi recently (http://goo.gl/Tu9EG) announced a new personal policy to not attend any convention that doesn't have (and isn't willing to enforce) a harassment policy of its own. He's also provided an opportunity for others (http://goo.gl/npPjz) to sign onto same, and -500- 630 people have so far. Good!
He answers some of the questions / objections he's heard about this at a new post, here: http://goo.gl/NxJXY . My favorite line: "If your flirting strategy is indistinguishable from harassment, it’s not everyone else that’s the problem."
500 People Down With Scalzi’s Anti-Harrassment Con Policy So Far
As of his latest update, about 500 people have co-signed John Scalzi’s anti-harassment policy, meaning they either support it or are willing to implement it at conventions. So far ALA Annual, Context Convention, Geek Girl Con and Readercon have tweeted that they are on board as well, which means cons may soon be safer and more fun for all!
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I've been to many a convention and had no idea that people were harassed. Any idea what kind of stuff is going on?
+Scott Randel – Here was the triggering event that Scalzi allowed someone to raise on his blog (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/06/28/reporting-harassment-at-a-convention-a-first-person-how-to/), though there are no details. Googling "convention harassment" will probably net you a load full of links. I've certainly read about a lot of incidents over the last few years, and they've tended to (sadly) engender the sorts of is-harassment-real and man-up and stop-being-a-baby kinds of crap that one wouldn't expect in the "geek world" — save that, sadly , we're human, too.