Q.L. public FB post:
Why do people complain about others "not considering how they feel" without giving others the same courtesy? Why is it so important for people to ignore us because they want to have fun? Fun isnt needed; it's a want. These are full grown adults, some with children, saying their fun is more important than others' safety.
IT'S NOT *JUST* ABOUT JEFF.
The culture that he created is clearly still there. His staff have either consent violations directed at them and/or allowed rapists to contine to come to the events. They have been shown to ignore reports made about these people. It took 4 years for my rapist to be banned from these events. After that and reading the chat logs, it is clear nothing is changing.
Silver Phoenix Society needs to admit their faults and their wrong-doing. They need to sincerely apologize and fully understand that just because they remove one person from the event doesn't mean that everything is perfect and the slate wipes clean.
It's like saying you expect the government to be perfect and just dandy only because you oust the President. The people who put him there, the people who supported him, are still there. They are still influencing everything. Getting rid of them is a start but it doesnt clean the slate.
Some say Silver Pheonix Society has changed their view points they had before Wicked Faire. If that's true, why haven't they taken responsibly for their words? There is so much honor and courage in admitting your wrongs. I would respect the hell out of them if instead of gaslighting or redirecting blame, SPS coming out saying "hey. We messed up. We said those things. We are going to do better. We have learned from our mistakes. We will prove it with action." Will people believe SPS right away? No. Actions are worth a thousands words. At this point, saving these events are not going to happen. They had their chance with that. That doesn't mean that SPS as a company has to die.
Look, Wicked Faire changed my life. The first two Wickeds that I attended gave me some of my best memories. I wouldn't be where I am today without the friends I made there. I am in the best place as far as I remember. All because of Wicked. I am not trying to destroy anything. I would give anything for Wicked to be that way again, but it won't ever be. Up until past year or so, I stopped going. I had only been attending the last few years because I was getting paid and I had more protection than before.
Stop writing us off by saying we want to watch it burn for the sake of burning.
THIS. IS. NOT. ABOUT. ONE. PERSON.
M.W. comment:
Quiana, you ask for an apology, and you deserve one, so I am here to say that I am sorry for anything that I have said caused you any pain. Nothing I said referred to you or your situation or any like it. In the logs that you have read, I was speaking only of what was right in front of us. I did not know about your situation, but now that I am hearing about it, I believe you in what you say and I believe you in how you say you were treated by JME, and I am appalled by it.
You may choose to believe me when I say that I did not know or not, but I honestly did not know any of that process.
But that does not matter. What matters is that something I said upset you, and for that I am sincerely sorry.
There are people who really do want to burn it all down, but I do not think you are one of them. I think that you are a good and honest person who has been a victim and just wants to see that other victims are protected, and that is a wonderful thing.
I was not privy to anything that happened in the consent process until just over one month ago. When I learned how ineffective the system was, one of my first projects was to create a fair, safe, fast system to investigate and deal with complaints. When I found that the project was beyond my talents, we brought in Jullie, who is far more talented than I, to complete the process.
This is the first I had heard of your situation. Everything was kept extremely confidential, and in my low position, I did not have access to any of it, but four years is far too long. No one should ever have to go to an event and think about if they have enough protection. Protecting the attendees is the duty of the event, and I take that very seriously.
I understand if you have no desire to talk about what has happened to you, but if you are interested, I am certain that Jullie would be very interested to hear about your experience as she completes the structure of the Incident Response Team and Determination Committee. It is precisely what happened to you that we want to make sure never happens to anyone else.
Removing one person does not change a culture. That is why we are making sweeping changes to the way everything is run, from the creation of a Board of Trustees, to the Determination Committee and IRT, to the way that event chairs are held accountable to the Board. If there are changes that you believe should be made, I would like to know about them so that we can bring them to the Board and see if they can be implemented.
I am sorry. I was wrong. Please let me know if there is any way that I can make amends for any hurt I have caused.
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