Calls to boycott Supanova festival over founder’s comments

6 Jun 2016 | Filed under Culture,Screen | Posted by

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The Supanova pop culture festival changed gears into ‘damage control mode’ today after it was revealed that the festival’s founder was an opponent of the Safe Schools Coalition anti-bullying program.

Supanova founder Daniel Zachariou shared a petition on his personal Facebook account asking friends to sign a petition opposing the Safe Schools Coalition program.

The ‘Protect Our Kids‘ website claims that children as young as 5 years old are being forced to learn about sex, sexual fluidity and transgenderism [sic]. The Supanova founder encouraged his 830+ friends to sign the petition to ban the program from all Australian schools.

Soon after Zachariou posted his plea screen shots of his post began circulating on sci-fi fans sites and was quickly picked up by fandom focused media sites.

Zachariou posted an apology to the convention’s Facebook page saying that he held concerns about the anti-bullying program but his personal views were not reflective of the organisation as a whole.

“In no way did I intend to express transphobic or homophobic views, which would not align with the values of acceptance and camaraderie that I hold and aim to demonstrate through Supanova. Moreover, such views would not reflect the perspectives and diversity of the phenomenal team of staff and volunteers that make up Supanova as a whole.” Zachariou posted.

The convention organiser said he hoped people would realise that his event would still be as welcoming as it had been over the past 15 years and he declared a new diversity panel would be part of the program at the conventions events across the country later this month.

Supanova is in Perth on June 24-27 featuring Eugene Simon from ‘Game of Thrones’, Juliet Landau from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Charmed’ stars Sharon Doherty and Holly Marie Combs.

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