The SFWA’s official announcement of my expulsion doesn’t happen to mention me or why I was expelled. The SFWA President didn’t provide a reason in his email to me either. That was interesting in light of this belated addition to the official announcement:
Amended to add:
We will continue to omit the expelled individual’s name and the details of his behavior on advice of counsel.
They can’t mention the reason, of course, because that would reveal that their action was either a) highly selective, or, b) ideologically driven.
Meanwhile, Jemisin makes it clear, in her uniquely civilized way, that she’s got others on her hit list:
I’m still thinking about how much I’m willing to put up with, and for how much longer.
For the time being, though, I’ll remain a SFWA member. By expelling Mr. Beale,
and making a clear choice to offend at least one bigot this one time,
SFWA has done the bare minimum of what it must to retain relevance to
the bulk of its membership. Much, much more needs to be done, and I
suspect the organization will always be reactive to change
rather than proactive in this area. Frankly I don’t expect better of a
group that took 10 weeks to decide whether a member who spread hate
speech in its name was deserving of the label “professional”. But at
least for now SFWA might manage to stay relevant enough, to enough
people, to last awhile longer. I guess we’ll have to see.
Some time ago, I warned several SFWA members who were on the political left but concerned about the precedent an expulsion would set that my expulsion would not mark the end, but rather the beginning of the ideological cleansing. The mediocre feminist members of the organization, virtually none of whom should ever have been permitted to join in the first place, have nothing better to do than play sex police and ideological enforcer. They love having an excuse to be outraged and if they can’t find one, they will manufacture one. I may be the first to be expelled by the rampaging rabbits, but it seems very unlikely I will be the last.
The lesson of the SFWA saga is the way in which it demonstrates how good organizations are invaded, conquered, and purged of both its purpose and its members by the progressive Left. If your church, or your business, or your interest organization is not actively on guard against such individuals, and is not prepared to prevent them from joining, then the chances are very good that the process you have observed here is already underway.
In case you are interested, here is the actual vote. Note that none of the four individuals named in the response, who were documented as doing the same thing I was accused of in the complaint, recused themselves. Even the Board Appointed prosecutor voted:
Moved: That, having determined there is good and sufficient cause, a member be expelled from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for conduct materially and seriously prejudicial to the purposes and interests of the organization.
Steven Gould, President
Rachel Swirsky, Vice President–Second
Lee Martindale, South/Central Regional Director–Aye
Jim Fiscus, Western Regional Director–Aye
Matthew Johnson, Canadian Director–Aye
Bud Sparhawk, Treasurer–Aye
Tansy Rayner Roberts, Overseas Director–Aye
Eugene Myers, Eastern Regional Director–Aye
Susan Forest, Secretary–Aye
Vote carried: 9-0-0-0