Walker Stalker Con Joins Boycott Against Discriminatory North Carolina Law

Yesterday Walker Stalker Con announced that they will be postponing their Charlotte, North Carolina convention. This change is because they, along with many other companies boycotting North Carolina, hope for a repeal of the state’s bigoted law which forces people to use the restroom of their assigned birth gender regardless of their actual gender identity.

The official Walker Stalker Con website explains:

Walker Stalker Con …has always been a place for ALL fans, regardless of who they are, or who they love. As such, we must add our voice to those opposing the injustice of North Carolina House Bill 2, and postpone our June 25-26 2016 Charlotte event.

We have faith in the people of North Carolina, and have moved our event to December 17-18 2016, in the hope that by that time this unfair law will have been repealed. We will continue to evaluate the situation in the coming months.

The convention is making it easy on fans; if you are able to attend the new dates in December, you don’t have to do anything at all except show up with your original ticket. And of course if you can’t attend in December, full refunds will be given to anyone who contacts them by emailing info@fanfest.com.

Walker Stalker Con joins another prominent convention in speaking out against such discriminatory laws – earlier this year, Dragon Con made sure that their attendees knew they weren’t going to stay silent about Georgia’s “religious liberty” bill, which allows faith-based organizations the right to refuse service or employment to anyone who they deem “violates their religious beliefs”.

Not that any of this is surprising; while every convention has its issues from time to time, being open-minded and welcoming is a huge part of the appeal of the geek community. Here’s hoping that these and other actions taken by companies that refuse to be part of this level of intolerance send a message to the places and people who have sadly succeeded in making it the law.

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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