With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I’m not going, although it’s within a day’s driving distance and will likely have a good filk program.

There is a blanket prohibition on “Slurs and derogatory comments about a person, group, or category of people.” That presumably includes, just to come up with some examples, the Chengdu con chair, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Russian army, billionaires, Neil Gaiman, and the new Pope. It will be one dull convention if no one can say anything bad about any of those people! When attendees can be accused without eyewitness testimony, it’s even worse. This isn’t just hypothetical; in 2022 Balticon used this provision to make life miserable for one of its program participants.

What formal charges were presented against Stephanie Burke and who claimed to witness the alleged violations is unclear. According to Burke’s own statement:

I was escorted out of that room like I was a dangerous and disgusting criminal before the panelist who had arrived to see the next panel discussion. After being spoken to with much disrespect, I was escorted to con ops where I was informed that I was going to be pulled from my panels for the rest of the con. When I asked why I was told that I had complaints lodged against me about the mentioned panel on Friday. Then Lisa Adler-Goldman proceeded to yell at me, stating that I not only said transphobic things, that I advocated for stopping people with a belt, for people to not take their meds, and that some Balticon years past I had said something about the Romany people being gypsies and that they were liars, dirty, and thieves, all allegations that I denied. I was called a liar to my face and laughed at when I defended myself and demanded proof.

One staff member did all this and launched an investigation while the concom was helpless to do anything? Tell me another one.

Did Burke say something negative about somebody during the convention? I’d be surprised if she didn’t, unless she’s far more polite than most fans. The rule can be used to punish somebody whom somebody doesn’t like, and that appears to be what happened. With the prohibition still in place, it can happen again, and the concom can find another handy scapegoat if it blows up on them.

The con committee dumped all the blame on one staff member. As far as I can tell, this was an unnamed volunteer, not Lisa Alder-Golden (whom Burke misidentified as Lisa Alder-Goldman). Alder-Golden issued an apology for yelling but not for the content of the accusations. The convention chair’s so-called apology, though, was only for the way Burke was yanked out of a panel, while saying that an “active investigation” of Burke was still in progress. Eventually the concom dropped the accusations. The prohibition on “derogatory” speech remains in place, ready to be used on anyone else the concom doesn’t like.

I’m not going to Balticon until there is clear evidence of serious change.

(This is a modified version of an earlier piece I posted to Usenet.)