As the old adage goes: “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.”
I’m sure we have all heard that at some point in our lives from a parent, guardian or a teacher.
But for those few who haven’t heard this phrase before, it means you are a product of those you surround yourself with and if you are surrounded by people who are hateful, mean and nasty, well that is how others are going to see you as well.
Through most of my life, I have wanted to be a journalist. While I have had many in the profession I have looked up to, two of them stood out as individuals who, at least in professionalism, I wanted to model my own career after.
The first was former host of NBC’s “Today” show Matt Lauer, who fell completely off the list of people I admire when it was revealed in 2017 that he allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted several work colleagues. It was in the reporting of this story and the same type of allegations against Harvey Weinstein that led to me admiring the talent and reporting skills of Ronan Farrow.
The other journalist I looked up to was Anderson Cooper. I was particularly in awe of Cooper because he was not only consistently one of the best journalists on CNN but, like me, he is also openly gay. Coming home from work and turning on CNN to watch “Anderson Cooper 360” became a nightly ritual all through college and even into working here at Watermark.
While working as the Tampa Bay staff writer in 2017, I was given a chance to interview Cooper’s friend and New Year’s Eve co-host Andy Cohen for a road show the two had coming to Tampa. As it is already known around the office, my chat with Cohen was not one of my favorites.
Whether he was having a bad day or is always like that behind the scenes, Cohen was very curt, rude and seemed bothered that he had to do any interviews for the show. At one point during the phone interview, he stopped to snap at a passerby on the street and take a selfie. Not someone I would actively pursue for another chat. What is interesting is that after that interview, it was like the rose-colored shades were shattered and I started to see tones of Cohen in Cooper when I would watch him. I was also still surprised over his response earlier that year to Kathy Griffin and the infamous Trump head photo when he turned his back on his friend.
Once seeing Cooper and Cohen on CNN’s New Year’s Eve show, they seemed like a pair of Mean Girls to me and I haven’t been a regular watcher since. The company you keep says a lot about you. That doesn’t just apply to people though. The same goes for companies, groups and organizations. You may preach support and acceptance but are your actions matching your words?
That brings me to a recent announcement from one of Central Florida’s largest conventions, MegaCon. The pop culture convention is one of my favorite events that comes to Orlando. I am a geek to the core and love to gather with all my fellow geeks and nerds in a safe and fun environment to share in our love of superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy and more. Also as a member of the LGBTQ community, I reveled in how unapologetically MegaCon embraced its queer fans. So much in fact that the LGBT+ Center Orlando last year began hosting a safe space oasis at the convention.
I was surprised to see MegaCon announce that “The Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano would be a part of this year’s convention. Carano, who is a former MMA fighter and an extreme right conspiracy theorist, has been accused of being transphobic, racist and anti-Semitic because of her continually posting on social media comments, photos and memes that are transphobic, racist and anti-Semitic.
Instantly, the online announcement started to get hundreds of comments which could mostly be broken into two categories: people concerned that her appearance will bring in close-minded, toxic fans and close-minded, toxic fans praising MegaCon for “owning the libs.”
I’m all for having a diverse group of celebrities and fans attend. MegaCon — like all fan conventions — is supposed to be about having fun, being accepted, celebrating diversity and feeling safe to express yourself in whatever way you want to do that, but I would argue that by bringing in anyone who is known for sharing hateful misinformation and views that are insensitive to marginalized groups expresses that those values are not important to the host. Show us your friends and we can tell who you are.
