Author: Cheryl

Worldcon 75 Day 1: Where Did All These People Come From?

~ Cheryl ~ 6 Comments

The Helsinki Worldcon is now well underway, and the big topic of conversation is the attendance. On the face of it, this is a good thing. We all want Worldcon to grow. The largest number of attending members in history is still LA Con II in 1984 with 8365. LonCon 3 in 2014 had more members in total, but only 6946 attending. The last I heard Helinki was up to 6001. Some of those may be day members, who have to be counted somewhat differently from full attending members, but even so it is an impressive number. Helsinki certainly looks like being in the top 5 Worldcons by size.

Unfortunately, based on previous Worldcons outside of the US/UK axis, expected numbers for Helsinki were more like 3500. Messukeskus could handle that easily. It is more than big enough in terms of exhibit space for what we have. But the function space, where programming happens, is stretched to the limit.

There are many things that a Worldcon can do to cope with the unexpected, but building new program rooms is not one of them. Seeing how memberships were going, Helsinki did negotiate some space in the library across the road. It did not try to turn empty exhibit halls into function space because we all know how badly that went in Glasgow in 1995.

Hopefully tomorrow, with more program streams in operation, the pressure on space will ease, but right now what we have is every program room packed solid and many people getting turned away. Messukeskus is very hot on fire safety. Personally I’m going to avoid program at much as I can because I have been to many Worldcons and there are lots of people for whom this is their first experience of the convention. Hopefully other regulars will do the same. I don’t envy the Helsinki team trying to sort this out, but I guess if you must have a major problem it is better to have one that was caused by your amazing success in other areas.

Everything else appears to be running fairly smoothly. There are plenty of food vendors open at the convention and they seem to be doing excellent business. The dealers, fan tables and art show are all up and running. If I’m not trying to get to panels I may see more of the convention tomorrow.

Rugby World Cup Kicks Off

~ Cheryl

If I wasn’t busy in Finland I would be at home watching the Women’s Rugby World Cup on TV. The first round of matches started today in Ireland. Wales had the worst possible draw, beginning their campaign against the mighty Kiwis. Naturally we got thrashed. You’d think that the next game against Canada might be easier, but actually the Canadian women are very good. Thank goodness we have Hong Kong in our group. Canada utterly destroyed them.

Elsewhere the USA got off to a winning start against Italy and England thrashed Spain. Ireland-Australia and France-Japan are being played this evening. Scotland did not qualify for the finals.

We Are Officially Received

~ Cheryl


Worldcon isn’t due to start until tomorrow, but this evening a bunch of us were invited to attend a civic reception at City Hall here in Helsinki. Obviously the city couldn’t fit all 6,000+ attending members in, so the convention ran a lottery weighted by contributions to programming. Kevin and I were both lucky enough to get in. There were also fans from Finland, Sweden, Ireland, France, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, China and doubtless many other countries as well. It all looked very official (and incidentally gave some of us a great opportunity to check in with senior convention staff in a relaxed and informal fashion).

Of course it also made the forthcoming convention seem so much more welcome in the city. Comparisons were made with Winnipeg in 1994 as the last time a city had pushed the boat out for us in this sort of way.

The building now used as City Hall was originally built as an hotel in 1833. The style is Russian Imperial, Finland having been annexed by Alexander I in 1809.

After the reception a lot of people disappeared off to a karaoke bar. I got registered and went back to my hotel because I was very tired day looking around the city. My Fitbit says I did almost 25,000 steps today so I think I have earned a rest. What worries me is that the con hasn’t started yet. Ooops.

A Trip to San Antonio

~ Cheryl

No, not me, I’m still now allowed into the USA. I’m talking about G.V. Anderson, the young writer from Dorset whose first professional sale, “Das Steingeschöpf”, has been chosen as a World Fantasy Award Finalist.

Naturally she’s very excited, but World Fantasy is in San Antonio this year and a trip to Texas is expensive. So she’s crowdfunding the cost of flights for herself and her significant other. Every little helps, so if you have a few pennies you can donate the appeal is here.

Also, if you are going to World Fantasy, there’s a young lady who could do with some friends to look after her.

Introducing Rainbow Stumps

~ Cheryl

The lovely people at Stonewall UK have made huge strides in combating homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in football through their Rainbow Laces campaign. However, that’s just one sport among many. I’m much more interested in rugby (where Gareth Thomas and Nigel Owens have already done great work) and cricket. I’m delighted to report that Stonewall’s new cricket-related campaign, Rainbow Stumps, launched today.

The plan is to have representation at T20 matches around the country all through this week. There are both men’s and women’s matches taking place. The good folks at Sky Sports are also on board. Look, here’s Bob Willis:

(For the benefit of non-cricket people, he’s always that sour.)

Athers, Bumble and Naz have also got in on the act.

Of course the whole point is that LGBT+ people want to be involved in sport too. That meant that Stonewall needed to find people with a passion for cricket. How could I refuse? Here’s my contribution.

The timing is rather unfortunate. I would love to be down at Taunton on Saturday to cheer on Somerset and Western Storm, but there is a small matter of a Worldcon keeping me here in Helsinki. Sorry folks.

Beware Fake Hugos

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I understand from Kevin that there is an event being promoted on Facebook that offers a link to live streaming of this year’s Hugo Award ceremony. This is fake, and will probably lead to a site loaded with malware. Details of how to follow the text-based coverage that Kevin and I will be providing are here. There is no official link for the convention’s video-based coverage yet, but when it is available it will be posted on the Worldcon 75 website.

Update: the official live stream will be via YouTube at this address.

Toilets in Helsinki

~ Cheryl

One of the things that worries people most about visiting a foreign country is making sure they use the correct toilet. As you will have noticed from my videos, major venues such as the airport and Messukeskus doing the usual signage thing, which is fine unless you come from a country where men traditionally wear skirts and/or women trousers. However, bars and restaurants around the city may use words instead of pictures, or just have letters like they do in St.Urho’s, the fannish pub. So which door should you use?

Persons who are male-identified should use the door marked M, or Miehet. You may also see H or Herrar if the venue’s preferred language is Swedish.

Persons who are female-identified should use the door marked N, or Naiset. You may also seen D or Damer if the venue’s preferred language is Swedish.

Gender neutral toilets are very rare here.

Of course some places may try to be cute and use other terms, in which case the best advice I can give is to lurk and watch who uses which door.

Friday Night is Cruising Night

~ Cheryl

On the first Friday evening of each month proud car owners in Helsinki bring their beloved vehicles to the harbor where they can be admired by others. Otto and I took a trip to see the show. Here are some pictures.

Jukka Rintala Exhibition at Didrichsen

~ Cheryl

Didrichsen is an art museum in a wealthy suburb of West Helsinki. It was originally the home of Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen who collected art and cultural artifacts. As they got older they decided to turn their home into a museum so that everyone could enjoy the things they collected.

The particular passion was sculpture, and the museum has several Henry Moore pieces as he was a personal friend of the Didrichsens. There is also work by Eila Hiltunen who is most famous for the Sibelius monument in Helsinki. Much of the sculpture is in the garden. Inside there are some paintings, including one Picasso. There is also a small collection of ancient items from Latin America and the Far East.

However, the main item in the museum right now is an exhibition devoted to the work of artist and fashion designer, Jukka Rintala. He’s made a lot of dresses for models and actresses, and has also done quite a bit of theater work. Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Pasila Station and Messukeskus – the Worldcon 75 Venue

~ Cheryl

Four years ago, when Helsinki was first bidding to hold Worldcon, I did a video tour of the venue. You can find that here, but a few things have changed since then so I thought it would be worth re-visiting the venue. In particular you may have heard scare stories about construction work. Thankfully that turns out to be pretty much a non-event as we don’t need to go near the parts of Pasila station that are being dug up. Of course the room allocations that I mentioned in the older video may have changed too, but I didn’t have facilities staff around today to explain things.

Here is the latest video, in which I manage to mispronounce Messukeskus in a variety of spectacularly wrong ways.

Camille Auer Exhibition – Trans in Finland

~ Cheryl

Today’s Helsinki Sanomat had a huge feature on Finnish trans artist, Camille Auer. Her photo took up the whole of the front page of the culture section, and there was a big article inside which is reproduced on their website (in Finnish, obviously). Naturally I had to visit the show.

The exhibition is fairly small, and is mostly installations, which may or may not be your cup of tea. The two biggest are both about the process of medical transition. One is made up of empty packaging from the vast amounts of medication that trans people have to take. It might not seem much on any one day, but it builds up quickly through your life. The other is made from (heavily redacted) letters from various medical people. They are all in Finnish, but I knew the sort of things they’d say.

Trans medicine is evolving slowly, and these days most Western doctors don’t think that merely being trans makes you insane. However, in order to get treatment, you have to prove that you are mentally disturbed because you are unable to live in your assigned gender. It is a degrading process.

In Finland things are worse on at least two counts. Firstly the country has naming laws, so if you want to change your name you have to apply for permission. Secondly, because Finland’s law about changing your legal gender is very old, it is necessary to prove that you are infertile before you can do so. That’s not necessary in the UK because our law is more modern (though still very much lacking compared to the newer Irish law).

Any trans people passing through Helsinki for Worldcon might want to pop in to give Camille some support, but mostly I hope that lots of Finnish people check it out. Their laws need an overhaul.

The exhibition, rather delightfully titled Antiphallic Dick, is at the Project Room at Lönnrotinkatu 35. It is open from 11:00-18:00.

Helsinki – Airport to City by Train

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

A whole lot of you will be flying into Helsinki for Worldcon over the next few days, and will be wondering how you get from the airport to the city. So I made a video of what I did when I arrived. For the princely sum of €5 you can get a train from the airport to either Pasila, the station by the convention center, or Helsinki Central. The full journey takes just 28 minutes, and the trains are very frequent. Here’s how it is done.

Update: In answer to Lynn’s question in comments, the schedules are available online here. The trains have a gap in service between roughly midnight and 5:00am, but there are a number of bus services that full the gap. The 615 is half-hourly through the night.

Sheffield Uni Does LGBT History

~ Cheryl

The History Department at Sheffield University has a great blog called History Matters. Right now they are doing a series on LGBT history and there is some excellent content already available.

In “The Past is not a Straight Line” Bodie A. Ashton makes the case for history being far more queer than most people think.

In “Tim Farron, the Bible and Queerness” Jo Henderson-Merrygold takes issue with the former leader of the Liberal Democrats over what the Bible actually says about gay people.

And in “Earinus: A Roman Civil Rights Activist?” I talk about one of my favorite Romans, a young eunuch whose sense of his own masculinity was so strong that he may have persuaded the Emperor Domitian to ban child castration.

Much more great content will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

The Emma Newman TV Clip

~ Cheryl

I promised you the clip of Emma Newman and I being interviewed on the Crunch the Week show on Made in Bristol TV. Here it is.

I think Emma did a fabulous job. Also you get a great view of my octopus necklace. Thanks as ever to Steve LeFevre for making us so comfortable.

Of course Emma didn’t win the Clarke, but being a finalist is a huge achievement and there’s no shame in losing to a book that has already won a Pulitzer. I am continuing to keep my fingers crossed for the Hugo.

And while I’m here, my radio interview on BBC Bristol is currently available on Listen Again. You’ll be able to find it here for a few days.

Inside Transgender Pakistan

~ Cheryl

That’s not my title, it is the title of an episode of the Crossing Continents series on Radio 4. In it, BBC journalist Mobeen Azhar talks to a variety of trans-identified people in Pakistan. They include Kami Sid, a well known trans model, members of a traditional Khwaja Sira group (similar to India Hijra), and Mani, a trans man.

The most interesting thing to me about this is the contrast between trans debates in Pakistan and those we have here. In Pakistan the Khwaja Sira tradition dates back at least as far as the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), probably a lot further. Though they may live as women, Khwaja Sira identify as third gender, in a large part because their definition of “woman” is based on the ability to procreate. As the radio interview shows, modern Khwaja Sira take a dim view of Western trans people who identify within the gender binary.

In contrast, in the West, what little tradition we have is based in a highly medicalized view of trans identities in which only those people who identify as men or women have been seen as valid. These days we are seeing a lot more visibility in the West of people who identify outside of the gender binary. Some binary-identified trans people, such as TV presenter India Willoughby, look down on non-binary people in very much the same way that older Pakistani Khwaja Sira look down on binary-identified trans people.

The lesson from this should be obvious. Trans people come in many different types. How they identify can vary enormously, and may in part be determined by the culture in which they have grown up. One person’s view of their identity should not invalidate anyone else’s identity. There’s enough room in this world for all of us, and goddess knows we have enough enemies without fighting among ourselves.

Radio Tomorrow

~ Cheryl

Tomorrow morning my colleague, Berkeley Wilde, and I will be on BBC Radio Bristol with Dr. Phil Hammond. We’ll be talking fairly generally about the work that The Diversity Trust does, and more specifically about LGBT+ things that are in the news. I expect to get asked about Trump’s attempted ban on trans people serving in the military, and about a recent vicious attack on a homeless trans woman in Bristol.

The show begins at 9:00am and I’m expecting to be on at around 9:45. You can listen online, and the show should be available through the Listen Again service for several days after broadcast.

World Fantasy Award Finalists

~ Cheryl

The finalists for this year’s World Fantasy Awards have been announced. Locus has the full list.

I’m very pleased to see Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country on the Novel list.

The Long Fiction list looks very familiar. Huge kudos once again to Lee Harris and his colleagues at Tor.com for some amazing output. I am, of course, rooting for Seanan.

The Short Fiction contains a name that was new to me: G.V. Anderson. However, the excitement on Twitter soon revealed that she is local, living in Dorset. Not only that, but she had been at BristolCon last year. In fact she had attended a writing workshop with Gareth Powell. Her story, “Das Steingeschöpf”, is her first professional sale.

Clearly we have an emerging talent here. I’m keen to get her to Fringe at some point, though we are booked up for this year. Maybe I’ll get to chat to her on the radio as well. I need a recommendation for the best spicy pizza in Bristol.

Finally it is great to see Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction by Michael Levy & Farah Mendlesohn getting some recognition. As many of you will know, Mike succumbed to cancer in April of this year. He was a lovely bloke, and I’m very pleased to see his work being honored in this way. Very best wishes to Farah too. When you write a book with someone you get to know them very well.

Me v Trump

~ Cheryl

This afternoon Bristol 24/7 asked me if I would write something about the current fuss over trans people serving in the military. So I did.

Somehow I doubt that I’ll have any impact on US politics, but it is useful to point out that trans people are being used here. We make up only a very small percentage of the population. We cost the countries in which we live very little, and we try very hard to be law abiding because we know we’ll be punished far worse than non-trans people would be if we get caught breaking the law. And yet we keep having these media panics about how powerful, dangerous and expensive we are. The reason for this is that we are one of the current most popular media bogey groups. Some day it will be better, but doubtless only because some other luckless minority group finds itself in the spotlight. We need to become better human beings and stop falling for this nonsense.

Bristol Together For Grenfell

~ Cheryl

By August 4th I am going to be in Finland, but the good people of Bristol have chosen that day to show their support for, and raise money for, the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. It should be a great night. Ujima is busy promoting the event and our Station Manager, DJ Style, is one of the acts giving their time for free to help the appeal. Tickets are available here.

If you can’t make it to the event, you can still support the main Grenfell appeal.

Time To Destroy Science Fiction Again

~ Cheryl

As if the poor thing hadn’t been destroyed enough already…

Who is at it this time? Why, it is Disabled People. Yes, that is a Kickstarter link. The whole thing is being managed by Uncanny magazine, who have an excellent track record in this sort of thing. Because of that, they are already almost half way to their goal after one day. But don’t let that put you off, because of course there are stretch goals.

Fly, little Space Unicorns, FLY!