. Part of me wants to stay because I hate the idea of the bigots winning. Part of me wants to say "peace out" and bolt because WTF.
The whole RWA thing is triggering flashbacks for me! I was a member of the oldest online writers' forum since the days of dial-up, and an admin on the same forum for a decade or so. When I first joined, the forum was diverse and welcoming. Gradually it became less so. There were outbreaks of racist comments that were not removed by management, because the rules of the forum prohibited personal attacks, but not disparagement on grounds of religion, race, nationality, or gender. Writers of color left in disgust and, quite reasonably, they blamed management for allowing that kind of hurtful, bigoted commentary. Jews left. Writers whom I had brought into the forum---my writing students and editing clients---were personally hurt. That was agonizing for me.
I tried for quite a long time to convince my fellow sysops to change the rules. "Free speech!" most of them cried. Holy free speech, sacred free speech---no matter that the speech was being used on the forum to demean and hurt minority writers. There was a...what's that thing called?---a lively discussion over the issue, and in the end I lost. Free speech trumped decency, IMO.
So I left, too. Sadly, because over the many years, it was a great community. I'd made some good friends there, and had the joy of watching unpublished writers go on to become published writers, remaining on the forum to help others. Looking back at it several months later, I still feel I had no choice under the circumstances. But it hurts to feel that I left the haters and their enablers to rejoice over the spoils. It's a smaller, whiter, more monolithically Christian community than it was in the old days, but that's how those members like it.
I'm not a member of RWA, as I don't write in that genre. But if the pro-diversity members are able to wrest control from the others (and this Courtney Milan fiasco may provide that opportunity), then my hope is that they will do it and clean house, rather than start a separate organization. Why let the bad actors carry the day and keep the organization that so many volunteers spent so long building?