Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:19:08 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Gilliland Fliers
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 03:54 PM 10/23/2006, you wrote:
>Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > And even if it does exist, who cares?  That horse is dead.
>
>Only if Alexis's reputation is so bad throughout all of fandom that
>nobody will believe anything he says.  I strongly doubt that's the
>case.  Do you believe otherwise?
>
>Malicious untruths that are believed do real damage to real people.
>If someone were to distribute fliers at conventions (or publish them
>in widely-read fanzines such as File 770) that claimed that the
>dresses you make fall apart as soon as they were worn, and that you
>wouldn't give refunds when this happens, that would greatly hurt your
>business.  Especially if the person making the claim was someone who
>had been active in fandom for decades, a published author, and a
>Hugo-winning artist, whose integrity and honesty had never been
>questioned by anyone until the past year or so.
>
>If they were to continue distributing such fliers a year later, I
>don't think you'd appreciate being asked to ignore it on the grounds
>that it's a dead horse or stale news.
>
>Just to be clear, I didn't see any such flier or hear rumors of any
>such flier at Capclave, nor did I see Alexis there.
>
>The flier of a year earlier definitely existed and definitely
>contained malicious libel against myself and others.  Not everyone who
>has read it knows for certain that it is false.  And Alexis definitely
>attempted to get it published in File 770, in an attempt to damage
>my reputation throughout fandom with no chance for me to publish a
>response in the same fanzine for half a year.  He did this even though
>I had already resigned from WSFA.

Not the same situation at all.  *Your* livelihood is not being threatened
by whether or not anyone believes the Gillilands.  If it were, then I would
not consider the situation to be a dead horse.  As it is, the situation is
"dead Jim".  Even if it doesn't go away, it doesn't matter if people
believe it or not.  Eventually, the actual liar(s) discredits him/herself
by telling people things they know are not true.  I was told by someone
involved this situation that a person had said he was gay.  The person who
was claimed to be gay is an individual who may or may not be gay, but he
*definitely* would not *admit* it.  Not even to *himself*.  So the
individual who told me this little falsehood has lost credibility with
me.   As that person tells more and more lies, his/her credibility will
continue to crumble.  If you run around making yourself abnoxious screaming
"I've been wronged!  I've been wronged!" even when the truth comes out that
yes, indeed, you were wronged, no one will want to associate with you not
because of you having lied, but because of your having made a public
spectacle of yourself long after the issue was dead.

Candy
(301)345-6635