So, the Readercon Board made a statement about the incident in question.

Yeah…not impressed.

They are worried about his having a chance to reform, and he said he’s sorry…to the Board.

…so they are more worried about how he feels, rather than the women he harassed, or those who will in theory attend Readercon and potentially be harassed by him after his suspension ends?

File 770 dug up some interesting background on his attitude towards harassment:

However, Readercon’s lenient penalty unexpectedly resonates with Walling’s 2009 post to the Convention Anti-Harassment Project where he agreed with someone’s snarky opinion:

“yes, actually, because you are a woman I will give you the benefit of the doubt.”

See, that’s where I have to drop out of their idea. Because I’m a guy I don’t get the benefit of the doubt? I don’t think that’s right.

I am a decent person as are many other men. (note: I am NOT saying there are no indecent men)

I totally see reform coming, don’t you? /sarcasm

This is how we create a safe environment for people? Who are we worried about? The women who are currently getting harassed? Or the SMoFs who might be harassing them? Or the comfort of the Boards that have to deal with all of this?

If this were a corporation rather than a volunteer organization, he would have been fired by now. This was not a minor infraction or misunderstanding or inept flirtation gone horribly wrong. This was demonstrated, documented, publicly witnessed, escalating harassing behavior.

And then the written policy was thrown out the window because he said he felt regret. Apparently, the only way to retain the policy is if he twirled his mustache and said, “mwa ha ha, I’d do it again given the chance!” when confronted with his behavior.

Come on. We can do better than this.