Glasgow 2024 has told Chengdu Worldcon co-chair Ben Yalow and Chengdu Worldcon Hugo Administrator Dave McCarty they will not be allowed to attend the convention. McCarty says he did not receive an explanation why; Yalow says he did not request one.  

Yalow said to File 770:

I was told by the Glasgow committee that they would not permit me to attend the convention in person.

I had all of the monies that I had paid returned to me.

Asked what explanation he was given for this decision, and who communicated it to him, Yalow replied:

It came from the Vice Chair.  I did not ask for an explanation, since I accept that it’s within the power we grant to Worldcon committees.

Dave McCarty today told a listserv of former Worldcon chairs that Glasgow 2024 notified him they are refunding his attending upgrade and will not sell him a virtual membership. McCarty says, “This was done without explanation or any prior contact on this topic and questions about it were not answered.”

File 770 asked the Glasgow 2024 committee for an explanation and got this reply:

The convention’s formal response is as follows:

Glasgow 2024, A Worldcon for Our Futures, believes in and respects everyone’s right to privacy. Various sections of applicable Scottish and international law, including the UK’s General Data Protection Regulation, legally limit what we may disclose. To maintain our commitment to individual privacy and confidentiality, we cannot discuss any person’s membership status or attendance.

So at this time Yalow and McCarty are representing they’ve had no explanation of Glasgow’s action, nor is Glasgow offering one to the public.

Ever since this year’s UK Eastercon refused membership to McCarty and placed unspecified restrictions on Yalow while he was there, File 770 has been trying to learn whether Glasgow 2024 intended to take actions of its own, or simply planned to allow the pair to attend as expected.

Prior to that, in January, Worldcon Intellectual Property (W.I.P.), the California non-profit corporation that holds the service marks of the World Science Fiction Society including the mark “Hugo Award”, announced it had censured several directors including McCarty and Yalow. McCarty was “censured for his public comments that have led to harm of the goodwill and value of our marks and for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.” Ben Yalow was “censured for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.”

---

Comments are closed.