Paranoia, Press & Pantheacon

The Moonrise team is off to to the 11th annual Pantheacon, at San Jose, California. For information on Pantheacon, go here. While there, we will be meeting a large number of people in the Wiccan and Pagan community, telling them about Moonrise, schmoozing and doing the convention thing - and just maybe getting an interview or two in as well.

To be honest, Pantheacon was NOT forthcoming about our attendance. They ignored more than a month of emails, two phone conversations and faxed requests. When I finally pinned down Glenn Turner, the organzer, she indicated to me that she had no mechanism for press passes or official press attendance and would not create any. She made it very clear that media attendance is not welcome. Her only explanation was that allowing media could threaten the privacy of attendees, many of whom are fearful of being found out. This struck me as more than odd, since Pantheacon is a publicly advertised convention, with public attendance welcome at a prominent location, and it relies for its own success on publicity. Pantheacon charges people to attend and charges vendors to show their wares. Anyone who attends obviously knows they could be seen as a Pagan, and I don't buy that people are dumb enough to attend a public convention thinking no one can see them. Frankly, Ms. Turner's explanation holds no water at all.

My only conclusion is that the organizers are not well versed in dealing with media, and perhaps that is understandable, considering that they may seldom have had to deal with media officially before. But I expected that they would have put their minds to creating a positive media environment, if only for the good of their attendees and themselves.

This brings up two issues that will be addressed in Moonrise, and which we, as the Pagan community have to deal with: The Press and Paranoia.

The Press
First, the Pagan community needs to understand how to deal with the media. Pantheacon's response to me was just plain inappropriate in this regard. We should all understand how the Law of Return applies here. If I were a secular newspaper reporter, rather than a Wiccan film maker, Glenn Turner's response to me would have been a challenge I might not be able to resist. The law being on my side, I can report what I want, take and use photos or video I want from any public place, and I've already been given an uncooperative response from the organizers, so I would likely feel I have to sneak around and ferret out whatever dirt I could find. Thus, the work I produce would certainly end up inaccurate and might be slanted against the interests of who I am reporting on. An uncooperative attitude invites that kind of return.

On the other hand, sophisticated organizers will assist the media in their jobs, and they will more often get a positive return. They will provide proper press passes (standard everywhere) which admit media, and which identify them as media wherever they go in the convention (so people are warned). They will also provide a press liason, who will assist media in getting the information they seek. Media who do not follow the rules are expelled and thus there is a great incentive for media cooperation. Thus, the organizers gain control over the process, they limit sneak reporting, and because they have been helpful and forthcoming, they have the right to expect fair and positive coverage. Favorable coverage is never guaranteed, of course, but when you help people do their job, they tend to help you in yours. Again, it is the Law of Return in action.

Because, you see, there will be coverage of Pantheacon by myself and by mainstream press whether the organizers like it or not. You cannot hide a couple thousand Pagans in and around a prominent hotel, at a public annual convention that has been well publicized. Why pretend you can? And why pretend you can hide what people do at a convention to which the public is invited? This leads to the second issue: paranoia.

Paranoia
To paraphrase Gavin and Yvonne Frost, who have been openly Wiccan since the 1970s, if you are secretive about what you do in this country, they're going to hang you. Secrecy breeds suspicion and paranoia becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's another application of the Law of Return.

The popularity of Paganism makes attempts to hide a little bit difficult these days, and it's only going to get harder. Wicca in particular is no longer in the closet. As Carle Weschcke, a publisher at Llewellyn said in a 2002 interview, it has gone mainstream. Wicca has been called the fastest growing religion in North America, and part of the growth - perhaps the greatest part - is due to the ever increasing publicity the Pagan community gets. The secular world knows about it, and it is curious about what Wiccans and Pagans do. They are not hateful; they are curious.

That's not to say that the fears certain people have of being "outed" as Pagans are unfounded. In fact, that is precisely the point: as long as we as a community attempt to remain insular we subject ourselves to the suspicion of the greater community (especially when, as is the case with Pantheacon, being insular is both an absurd contradiction and impossible). Our paranoia breeds fear, suspicion, and invites repression, both in ourselves and by society at large.

I agree however, that one thing the community must avoid is the intentional "outing" of individuals. Coming out of the "broom closet" is an ongoing discussion in the groups I particpate in, and it is of course a personal decision. But we need those who feel led to become public to become public, for our own personal good and the good of our community. It is in that spirit that Moonrise is being produced.

Moonrise is a positive attempt at creating understanding and tolerace of the Wiccan and Pagan community. It is my response to those in the Pagan community who like to breed fear (and don't kid yourselves, we have a lot of them), and to those in mainstream society who want to understand us (and there are a lot of them, too).

A scientific (and philosophical) axiom is that when you change what you look at, what you look at changes. In previous times, I was sometimes as paranoid as many in our community and I saw the potential for dangerous repression all around me. In the short time I have been working on this project, I have changed my focus to finding acceptance and tolerance, and guess what? I've found there are far more accepting people out there than angry, hateful fundamentalists. I am looking at the positive acceptance of Wicca by mainstream society. That's what Moonrise is about.