Flash Forward Event Code Of Conduct
Flash Forward is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.
Anyone who violates this Code of Conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the Flash Forward organizers.
Harassment includes:
- Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion
- Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
- Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate
- Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop
- Threats of violence
- Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
- Deliberate intimidation
- Stalking or following
- Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes
- Sustained disruption of discussion
- Unwelcome sexual attention
- Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
- Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
- Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect other Flash Forward community members or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse
- Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties
Flash Forward prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Flash Forward reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding:
- ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
- Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
- Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions
Consequences: Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, Flash Forward may take any action we deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all Flash Forward spaces and identification of the participant as a harasser to other Flash Forward community members or the general public.
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
(This CoC is adapted from the XOXO Fest policy, thanks to them for making their policy so thoughtful and public to use and share. You can learn more about XOXO Fest here.)