Dear Friends and Fans,
Thank you for your patience while we have been absorbing the reaction to Adam Baldwin’s announcement as a guest for the Sydney and Perth 2015 expos this June. It has been a very challenging time for our team, a team that lives and breathes popular culture, in that we have been avalanched by two sets of fans: the first group called for Adam to be removed from the event and the second group called just as loudly to make sure he remained our guest.
As a backdrop to how we arrived at this juncture, Supanova has been trying to get Adam to come to Supanova since 2006 and we previously succeeded in April 2013 when he appeared at our Melbourne and Gold Coast events. The response from you, our fans, was overwhelmingly enthusiastic with a further call to action to invite him back from the fans in the cities that missed out. We again succeeded in securing him last year for June 2015 as part of the Whedonverse 'Serenity’10th anniversary celebration alongside his co-stars Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin.
To exclude someone from Supanova for their views, even if we don’t share them, goes completely against the spirit of the expo that we’ve presented all these years as all our stars appear to discuss their work in pop culture, not their personal political or ideological viewpoints. We similarly embrace all our fans, whatever their various pop culture passions may be, and that inclusiveness is at our very heart.
Further, the concerns are far-reaching and complex, and contain an immense amount of discord. We feel, as Supanova, that we’re not positioned to adjudicate either way.
What we could do, however, is raise the main areas of concern with Adam himself, the concerns you as our fans have raised, and this is the reply that Adam shared with us:
“The harassment and threats being made on both sides of the #GamerGate debate shame the games industry and make it extremely difficult for casual observers to see the merits of arguments about corruption, ethics or journalism.
Threats of violence and/or "doxxing" should be reported to law enforcement and handled at their discretion. Such threats are reprehensible and have no place in any debate.
Obviously, I condemn harassment. The YouTube videos linked on Twitter at the outset last September contained no personal information of any individual. I had zero knowledge of what might be in their comments sections. No one can honestly be expected to check vast comment threads below articles or videos before linking to them.
Lastly, I believe that pop culture conventions are inappropriate venues for controversial topics, so I will respectfully not be discussing them at Supanova, or its related events.”
Given that we have Adam’s statement above verifying he will not discuss #GamerGate while stating categorically that he does not condone harassment, bullying or doxxing under any circumstances; given we as Supanova will not allow questions regarding the subject from the floor; given we as Supanova as a professional organisation must fulfil our contractual obligations; given Supanova will be providing the highest level of enforcement of our Code of Conduct (a condition of entry to the event) to ensure our strong anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies are maintained; and given that so many fans continue to support Adam’s appearance as part of our ‘Serenity’ 10th Anniversary celebration, we will be proceeding with Adam’s attendance as planned.
As we’ve already mentioned, Supanova Expo has an incredibly inclusive array of fans who kindly share the space with each other, based on their mutual passions for imaginary worlds. Our programming crosses all demographics, celebrating diversity and a wide variety of genres. Supanova does not condone or allow bullying or harassment in any way, shape or form at our events which ensures a friendly, safe and welcoming environment. Both the Code of Conduct and the spirit of Supanova are agreements to treat with honour and respect every single fan and friend at the expo. You’ve always made us so very proud with the positive atmosphere you have created at every event.
We ask you, the Supa-fans, to maintain those principles and standards so that we as a community can positively influence the future of fandom, and its direction, through our shared love of pop culture and the heroic values that define it.
Yours in fandom, always,
-- Daniel Zachariou, Supanova Event Director