A Voice for Men Members Evicted from Expo after Erecting #Gamergate Booth

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Monday April 20, 2015 · 10:46 AM PDT

2015/04/20 · 10:46

The booth, depicting #gamergate propaganda images alonside those of AVFM's. Art by Alison Tieman, AVFM Assistant Managing Editor.

The booth, depicting #gamergate propaganda images alonside those of AVFM's. Art by Alison Tieman, AVFM Assistant Managing Editor.

Four members of a Voice for Men's "Honey Badger Brigade" lost their exhibitor privileges and were asked to leave the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo last Saturday after erecting a booth pandering to the #Gamergate hate movement. The four "activists" also disrupted at least one panel discussion on Friday, and lied to the Expo about the purpose of their booth. Their stated purpose was to "infiltrate" the expo, disrupt panels, and generally harass and annoy Expo attendees. The Honey Badgers obtained their passes under false pretenses, declaring on a crowdfunding page to finance their booth that they would be operating in "stealth mode".

Evidently they weren't stealthy enough. The booth, which was plastered with #gamergate propaganda posters, was closed by Expo officials before the floor opened to convention traffic on Saturday. AVFM Member Alison Tieman was banned from the Calgary Expo indefinitely, since she had claimed the four members would be promoting her webcomic Xenospora in the booth.

Since losing their exhibitor privileges, the "activists" and assorted #Gamergate talking heads have released about a billion hours of YouTube videos, accusing the Expo of misogyny, censorship, and "human rights abuses". Details about the Honey Badgers and their highly ironic whining follow below the fold.

In the days since getting kicked out of Calgary, the Honey Badger Brigade has asserted that they are not affiliated with AVFM and that their exclusion from the Expo was on the basis of gender. Both of these assertions are patently untrue.

Firstly, the four-person team from AVFM consisted of two women, Alison Tieman and Karen Straughan, and two men, Sage Gerard and Mike Stephenson. (Yes, they all have Patreon Accounts.) A team which is 50% male cannot accurately be described as "female", despite Breitbart's headlines to the contrary.

Secondly, 75% of the Honey Badger Brigade members sent to Calgary appear on the AVFM masthead.

Karen Straughan is listed as a "Contributing Editor" for A Voice for Men, Alison Tieman is listed as an "Assistant Managing Editor" for A Voice for Men, and Sage Gerard is listed as A Voice for Men's "Director of Collegiate Activism", which means he sneaks into women's bathrooms after hours at KSU and slaps AVFM stickers on the trash cans.

The one guy who isn't on the masthead, Mike Stephenson, has a Youtube Channel which has been repeatedly linked to on AVFM and its forums. Needless to say the content of Stephenson's videos is as men's rightsy as they come.

Actual Title Card for one of Mike Stephenson's Youtube Videos.

So it seems clear that the Honey Badgers are misrepresenting both the gender representation in their group, and where the group comes from, just as they misrepresented their purpose to the Expo. This is depressing, but not surprising, since the Honey Badgers raised more than 9,000$ to "infiltrate" Calgary Expo in the first place.

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