Forever Taboo @ Convergence 2002

by Alan Duncan

As a science fiction fan, it is always exciting to attend a major National Science Fiction convention. It is even more special to be able to say that you have attended as part of a club, which has made a contribution to the success of that convention. I am pleased to be able to say that Spaced Out was able to make such a contribution to Convergence 2002, the 41st Australian National Science Fiction Convention, held in Melbourne over the Queen's Birthday weekend, 7-10 June 2002.

We were lucky enough to have a major slot on the opening night of the con to launch “Solar Spectrum 2”, our second annual anthology of queer themed sci-fi/ fantasy. Four of the contributing authors gave readings from their works. The readings from Miriam English, Aaron A Hughes, our convener, Geoff, and internationally acclaimed author Kerry Greenwood, were well received by the crowd in attendance, and I’m sure contributed to our selling most of the print run of anthologies over the course of the weekend. If you haven’t secured your copy yet of this ground breaking publication, it is available from the club.

Following the launch we hosted one of the first celebrity panels of the weekend. Hosted by Geoff, “The Forever Taboo?” featured much-published US SF author Joe Haldeman and popular Australian authors Kerry Greenwood and Stephen Dedman. All these authors have featured queer characters in their sci-fi works. The name of the panel, “The Forever Taboo?”, actually pays tribute to Haldeman's book, “The Forever War”, written in 1975 and an earlier example of a work to feature such characters.

What followed was a fascinating discussion looking at the authors' motivations for including homosexual themes in their work, the gay people in their lives who influenced their attitudes, and the gulf in queer visibility between in TV/film as opposed to print. Kerry’s discussion of her characters taking on a persona of thier own beyond her control was particularly interesting - as was Stephen's discussion of his involvement with writing for TV... I didn’t know he had written an aborted Dr Who script! (Unusual for a hard core fan like me!)

We heartily thank these high profile authors for their participation and support, and also the organisers of Convergence, especially Rose and Sue Anne, who bent over backwards to accommodate us. I think the positive response we recieved demonstrates that there is a lot of support in the mainstream SF community for a GLBT club, and perhaps recognition, finally, that SF fandom includes members of the GLBT community.

Who knows, maybe with the publication of our little anthology, we are making some sort of history. Somehow, its nice to think that queer SF fans in the future could look back and see what we were up to back at the “turn of the century”. But, for the present and future... here’s to our next convention appearance.

*** Although Convergence is now over, you can still check out their website at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~converge/