In case you missed it, one of the commenters here at FtB has had enough:

I’m trying to figure out how to do this but I think in honor of Justin, I’d like to pick 2 deserving non-male members of the FTB community who are having trouble getting to the conference, and provide them plane tickets and some cash for transport from the airport. Because of the stalking, it’s understandably hard to get hold of some of the people who might be good to send. I’m not sure what to do; if any trusted intermediary wants to contact me, I’m very easy to find and I’d really appreciate it. Yes, I am serious.

By “in honor of Justin” I mean “nyaa nyaa nyaaa, I’m going and you’re not” I don’t think going around punching people’s lights out is appropriate, so I’ve been trying to think of a way of saying “fuck you very hard, Justin!” and I think I may have hit on one.

So we’ve been talking. We can make this happen. Click through if you’re part of the FtB community, want to attend Women in Secularism, and can afford to come with a good chunk of help.

First of all, let’s start with definitions. “Non-male” means just that. If you don’t identify as male, you qualify. “Member of the FtB community” should mean someone who has at least commented with some frequency. I will be that “trusted intermediary”, so you’ll need to trust at least me with some personal information.

It is also possible that Marcus can send more than two people. If you are willing to trust him with the information to book your flight, he has rather a lot of frequent flyer miles that he is willing to use as well. He travels a lot.

A word about Marcus: He has been one of Ed Brayton’s commenters as long as Ed can remember and has always been a good guy. He identifies as a feminist but doesn’t make any claim to be a great one. He has supported bloggers here at FtB previously.He has a certain respect for security. He’s motivated by anger here, as the harassment has gotten to be too much to him, and he can afford to indulge this angry whim.

(If getting a grant motivated by anger bothers you, or if you want to help someone else go, Secular Woman has also started raising funds for travel grants for women. Surly Amy is raising funds for travel grants conference registration for men.)

Still, you don’t have to be willing to give him this information. You can give me information instead, and it won’t be shared. So if you’re interested, use the contact button down on my sidebar to send me an email by end of day Monday, February 4.

What do I need to know?

Who are you? This means both the name you’ll be traveling under and the name you use here, if they’re different. If you don’t comment on my blog, please also tell me where you do participate and include information (such as the email address you use to comment) that I can verify with that blogger. How do you identify for purposes of gender? What registration level do you need? Regular, CFI member, or student? (Don’t be concerned that the student tickets have sold out. I bought a few for this purpose. I just need to know who can use them.) What will it take to get you to the conference? What airport will you be coming from, and what dates will you be traveling? (If air travel doesn’t make sense for you, tell me what does.) Are you okay with having your airfare paid with frequent flyer miles? Remember that this means sharing your personal information with Marcus. Would you prefer to be identified by the name you’ll use at the conference or by your commenting handle when announcing who we’re sending? They won’t be used together, but announcing who is going will help us maintain public accountability.

Marcus and I will discuss the applications in general terms. I won’t share anyone’s identities during the decision process, but he will need information on costs in order to budget and figure out how many people he can send. Decisions are not promised to be anything but arbitrary within that original criteria. We’ll try to make the decisions as quickly as possible so everyone can cement their plans.

Those chosen will work with me to get their registration and either me or Marcus, depending on preference, to make travel reservations. In addition, I’ll be sending each recipient a grant of $150 to be used however they see fit to cover hotel, food, or other costs from the conference.

So, who needs some help to get to Women in Secularism? Don’t forget that it will make some people very unhappy, and that’s exactly the point.