GamerGate in D.C. – The Full Story: Camaraderie and Bomb Threats
Image Via twitter.com/PixelMetal
The Road to GGinDC
It can sometimes be an uncomfortable thing when online events jump into the real world; trying to get a number of people who mostly interact online into one location can be difficult. But that’s exactly what Milo Yiannopoulos and Christina Hoff Sommers decided to do in Washington D.C., to resounding — if interrupted — success.
This isn’t going to be a dry recounting of the facts. If you want that, my editor, Josh Bray, has already given a pretty excellent timeline of events in our initial coverage. This is a story told partly through the eyes of those who were there and collected via tweets, blog posts, streams, and recounted to me personally, at length, by people who were there. Contributors include GwenLilyKnight and her partner, who I consider friends, work with the site, and who I have been working with in online activism for the past few months. I feel writers should have a degree of critical distance from their work, but here I do not. Only by being immersed in these events do I feel I can really do them justice in a recounting. So here is the story of GGinDC as I see them, and as the people who I’ve collected these accounts from see them.
There have been successful GamerGate meetups before, two in London and several small-scale gatherings where people participating in the online consumer revolt met with others for the first time (in what some of us would call “meatspace“), but this was the first big United States meetup, and it was always going to be much more controversial than it deserved to be. Yiannopoulos and Sommers spearheading the event personally gave it a greater amount of weight, as did being in the nation’s capital. All in all, about 150 people RSVP’d to the event. People came from all over the U.S. — even other parts of the world — all gathering for an evening at the Local 16 Bar on U Street, where a room had been booked for those attending. The stage was set for a nice little party where people would do nothing more than meet for the first time and converse over some drinks.
“The right of the people peaceably to assemble”
Enter the bumbling antics of one Arthur Chu. Oh Arthur. Do you just not like other people having fun? The one-time Jeopardy winner and seemingly full-time busy-body made it his mission the night of the meetup to contact Local 16 repeatedly on social media, via e-mail and even having his followers send phone calls with odd and hysterical messages at the manager. He referred to those gathering as a “right wing hate group” and tried to imply that the event being allowed to take place in their venue was somehow an endorsement of the “harassment and intimidation of women.” I think the irony of trying to impinge on the rights of a group while ostensibly dedicated to free speech and free expression was lost on poor Arthur, but it wasn’t lost on some of his followers or other GamerGate critics, who backed away from his attempts to intimidate and harass the venue. This was an attack on the right to peacefully gather, and done by a faction of people trying everything they can to stop it, including — as we will see — someone eventually breaking the law. This speaks volumes about how poor the state of free expression has become in the gaming and tech world, and neatly demonstrates why GamerGate still exists.
Whilst Scrooge McChu was desperately trying to ruin a party out of spite, simply because he didn’t like those attending, people were already arriving in D.C. SuperNerdLand contributor Gwen Lily Knight, an independent game developer, and her partner (to whom I am indebted to for helping me put this story together) took a bus ride across seven states consisting of twelve hours to be at the meetup. There was a spirit of cooperation in getting people to the event; homes were opened up by D.C. locals, and people gathered for pre-meetup meals and sightseeing. People helped each other out in whatever way they could to make the trip worthwhile and smooth. If all of this seems out of character for a “hate mob,” you’d be right.
As people started to arrive at the venue, it became clear that Washington D.C. was a city on alert. Protests related to the Baltimore riots were still ongoing, and there was a police presence already in the vicinity of Local 16 — around 30 protesters and as many police officers blocking the intersection. The bar is located a block away from a police department and across the street from a fire house. There had been some expectations that there might be some kind of disruption already, after the social media push by Chu and friends earlier in the day to get GGinDC ejected, but it seemed like utter insanity that someone would actually call in a threat to a location on such high alert already.
Ain’t No Party Like a GamerGate Party
Image Via Twitter.com/PixelMetal
The meetup was in a room upstairs at Local 16, with early arrivals standing around wondering how many more would arrive as people started to trickle in. Many of those attending only knew each other via Twitter handles or other online screen names, so introductions were often made with both name and nickname. Some even wore name-tags with their online handles to signify who they were. The room rented started to fill more and more until it was starting to overflow, packed full of folks wanting to be part of this event. The thrill of seeing people you have only met online, and seeing the faces of others you appreciate for the first time, is a hell of a thing. Camaraderie and a real party atmosphere was present in the bar, with people just enjoying being around other people. It was an atmosphere of positivity and excitement.
Milo and Sommers arrived, and the packed room erupted with applause. Christina Hoff Sommers is someone who is used to having her talks protested, being shouted over and having her books burned, so I imagine arriving to such a warm welcome had to be refreshing. After they settle in, a speech is given; first by Milo, then by Sommers, then by Factual Feminist Deputy host Caroline Kitchens, with the room being quieted with parody display of “Feminist Jazz Hands.” “Milo being Milo” I think was the best description that was given to me about his part, as anyone who knows the Breitbart journalist will attest that he is one of the most flamboyantly British men on the planet.
Image Via twitter.com/PixelMetal
There were handshakes and drinking (some drinking more than others); developers mixing with people used to the D.C. political scene; a D.J. was brought out as were two posters for everyone to sign honoring the two main hosts. Cathy Young, another famed feminist writer and scholar, was also in attendance, and has written her own first-hand account of events. Despite the stereotype that some would pin on gamers, the crowd had a large contingent of professional people, well dressed folks in their 30s. A huge span of ages, races, genders and sexes were present, as well as mainstream journalists and political types. Not just basement-dwelling neckbeards. The meetup was around 30% women at an estimate, for those wondering.
Just look at all the photos. You have middle-aged couples, people with greying hair, a good Asian and Hispanic contingent, independent games developers, tech pundits, black, white, straight, gay. A number of media people also turned out: Brandon Morse and Lizzy Finnegan of The Escapist; Allum Bokhari, contributor to Breitbart and GamePolitics; Ralph of The Ralph Retort. There were journalists from The Daily Dot, Reason, the Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller and possibly many other media attending incognito. Just a huge glob of different people, some you’d expect to see in a Washington bar and some you would not. Like a plush otter, which was circulated and made its way into many pictures in honor of Twitter user Andrew Gleason (known as Otter Jesus), who ran the “GamerGate Hug Patrol.”
If you think I’m harping on about the diversity thing too much, then think back to the early coverage of GamerGate. The words “white” and “male” were the prevailing descriptors, along with “angry” and every ugly outdated gamer stereotype imaginable. Look at the images. Listen to the stories. The stereotype and mislabeling has been discredited, yet is still repeated in some outlets. MSNBC and others have broadcast GamerGate as “a literal war on women.“
Gwen Lily Knight — who formed half of SuperNerdLand’s presence at GGinDC — is disabled. She suffers from various symptoms, but a couple are that leg muscles can get so easily worn out that they can no longer support her, as well as being in over all constant pain. I hope she does not mind me saying, but I think her just getting to D.C. was an achievement in and of itself. And she then attended the meetup with her partner, despite having a scare regarding collapsing the day before. An event that stuck out to me in her accounting was her conversation with Dr. Sommers. Gwen was sitting down and surveying the scene, when Twitter user VGBouceHouse took it upon himself to stand up to allow Sommers to sit down and speak with Gwen. What I didn’t initially realize was that he is a recent amputee. So here we have a man — who hasn’t even got his prosthetic yet — standing up so a 65-year-old feminist scholar and doctor of philosophy can talk to a disabled mixed-race lesbian indie developer and her fiancée. These are the kind of people that are labeled as a “hate mob” and are waging “war on women?” I have one question to ask to people that are peddling that narrative: What is wrong with you? Do you not have eyes and ears?
Continued on Page 2
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