JR Honeycutt Banned From BGG.CON 2019

So this was published today...

Coming Forward to Move Forward

W Eric Martin has this to say:

Game designer JR Honeycutt has been removed from the Tabletop Network event due to start in a couple of days, an event run in partnership with BoardGameGeek, and his BGG.CON 2019 badge has been revoked. For an explanation why, read this: medium.com/@victoria.mann11/coming-forwa...forward-8608e9c27e74

More importantly, if you exhibit behavior anything like what Victoria describes in this article, please do us in the game industry a favor and leave. I want BGG events — hell, every event, not to mention life itself — to be safe and welcoming, so help us do that by (at a very minimum) not being a terrible person.

Wow, I expected to wake up to reports of Victoria being trolled and abused, instead I found this.

JR Honeycutt's Apology on Facebook

If you can't access it on Facebook, here it is on Reddit
JR Honneycutt's Apology

Also this article on Tabletop Wire
Industry Distances Itself from Game Designer JR Honeycutt

I think that the real news here is that people with the power to affect change, the leaders in the industry and the influencers in the community, are taking a stand on the treatment and position of women in the industry and the hobby. The rank and file are following their lead. Perhaps we are finally beginning to emerge from the post #gamergate era and into the post #metoo era.

Personally, it makes me, as a woman, feel safer, more respected, and less invisible in the hobby. Perhaps I can stop hiding behind the scenes, and maybe start writing and producing content without feeling unsafe or irrelevant. So I have decided to test the waters and attend PAXU as an official member of the Press and schedule meetings and report here. What I produce will probably be a bit rough. I know some readers will roll their eyes and dismiss it. But I am going to do it.

And now I am going to push the submit button and not second guess what I just wrote and delete this entire post.

This is a real seachange moment, and we are watching it play out in realtime.

Statements from leaders and influencers are coming out in a way I would have never predicted, particularly after the response a while back to Katie merely stating the obvious - harassment exists at cons and in the industry.

Here is a statement just released from Stephen Buonocore:

I have spoken often in seminars, panels, and on podcasts about the importance of diversity and inclusiveness in the gaming community. I've stated that diversity and inclusiveness are the single most important things we can do to foster a healthy game community and industry.
I have been wrong.
The single most important thing that we must do in the game community and game industry is to create and maintain a safe environment for all gamers. Creating a safe environment for everyone then leads directly to increased diversity and more inclusiveness.
To use a geeky reference from a sci-fi Captain, I state this now:
"Not again! The line must be drawn here!"
That line should have been drawn already, several times over. We should have done more or said more or helped more, but we failed - I failed. Again.
"Not again!" This will be a mantra for me. "Not again!"
Did I know any of what was happening? No, not a single thing. But it has happened. Again.
I vow to be part of the solution on some level. I will do anything I can to not see this happen again.
What can I do? Of course, this is the hard part.
Passively, I offer this to everyone:
If you ever feel unsafe, threatened, or are being abused in some way, and I am at the convention or show, come to me. I will see to it that the threat is removed or the abuser knows that I am your ally.
Actively, I am going to work within the game industry on this. I have already reached out to GAMA on this issue and how we as an industry can help. This will be on the next GAMA Board Meeting agenda.
Finally, I would like to ask everyone who is reading this:
- Do you have any further ideas on how we can all create a safe environment for gamers?
- Are there any additional ways that I and others within the industry can help to achieve this?
Thank you for your time.

Here is another from W Eric Martin

One distressing element related to the revelations of JR Honeycutt's abusive behavior is the commentary I've seen from multiple people that he's not the only one out there.
I felt like a fool when Josh Githens' abusive behavior was revealed in 2018, and I saw multiple people (mostly women) comment that they had known about it and warned others to be wary of him.
With those thoughts in mind, what's the best way forward to remove people like this from the game industry? Without information, we can do nothing — yet it's unreasonable to expect victims to talk openly given that they're not doing so now, instead spreading word through a whisper network that might be somewhat effective locally.
I apologize if this sounds like I'm blaming victims for not talking publicly as that's not my intent. I mean only to reiterate that I can take no actions, whether individually or on behalf of BGG, unless I know about something, and as a relation in the industry pointed out to me after the Githens news came out, we at BGG aren't on the party circuit at cons, so apparently we miss out on the gossip that "everyone knows".
Any suggestions?