Actor Adam Baldwin, star of films like Full Metal Jacket and the TV series Firefly, famously fuelled the fire behind #GamerGate, which involved large-scale online abuse of women in the video game industry in 2014.
The sci-fi star is now slated to appear at the 2015 Supernova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney and Perth this June, and his inclusion hasn’t gone down all that well. A petition to stop him appearing at the expo is gathering steam, reaching over 2,600 signatures in the last 24 hours.
Created by Albert Santos on the campaigning site Community Run, the “Revoke Adam Baldwin’s Invite to the Supanova Pop Culture Expo” petition has also seen support from one of the original targets of #Gamergate, video game developer Brianna Wu.
Taking to Twitter, Wu has said that “geek culture” is struggling with “making the culture open to women”, and has called Baldwin a “sexist bully”. View a serious of her recent tweets, below.
Australian feminist collective Destroy the Joint have also promoted the petition online, and have posted a call to action on Facebook challenging Supernova’s decision.
“Supanova prides itself on being a family oriented event,” wrote Destroy The Joint. “So why are organisers asking Baldwin, who directly linked to videos that disclosed the personal details of game developer Zoe Quinn and gaming journalist and developer Brianna Wu to his several thousand Twitter followers?”
According to Junkee, Baldwin posted a Tweet about the petition, but later deleted it. The tweet reportedly included the phrase, “The Australian Electoral Commission found ‘GetUp!’ [who own CommunityRun] violated S.329 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.”
#GamerGate came to wider public attention when Baldwin shared the hashtag on Twitter in August last year alongside two videos which were critical of game developer Zoe Quinn. Baldwin has also been credited as creating the now infamous hashtag.
According to the Supernova website, Baldwin will take part in some sure-to-be-eventful Q&A sessions at the expo, and will also take photos with fans and sign autographs.
Hey #GamerGate.me, could you put this image into your archives. The start of the hash tag by @AdamBaldwin pic.twitter.com/tyqzFsXzPL
— Prof. Nick Flor (@ProfessorF) January 21, 2015
I’ve thought a lot about this. I need to make a public statement.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 21, 2015
There’s a petition to revoke @adambaldwin‘s invitation to Supanova, a geek major event. I strongly support this. https://t.co/nmAkOg0i3F
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 21, 2015
Something geek culture is struggling with is making the culture open to women. I think @adambaldwin is the absolute opposite of this goal.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 21, 2015
Take what @adambaldwin did to me out it. He spread lies and encouraged unprecedented harassment of @TheQuinnspiracy. This was unacceptable.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 21, 2015
This is very straightforward: Are you comfortable with bullies in geek culture? Because @AdamBaldwin is a sexist bully. He needs to go.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 21, 2015
