From Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom:

“By 1976, Star Trek cons were getting bigger and more expensive; more guests, more stars… In reaction, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro planned SeKWester*Con (pronounced “sequester con”) as the first media con by fans and for fans, with no celebrity guests – designed for fans who complain that at the big cons, they never get the time to see the other fans. The first convention had a cap of 200 attendees and was wildly successful.

There were 110 attendees. Most were zine editors, writers and artists, along with some zine readers. Two panels were ‘Feminism in Treklit with Sharon Ferraro and Jean Lorrah; and Paula Smith and Joan Verba debating the viability of the Vulcan-human hybrid; and Novels in Treklit.

SeKWester*Con was one in a series of cons that eventually became MediaWest*Con…..

The First “Slash” Panel

The first public discussion of K/S may have taken place at SeKWester*Con, Too in the form of a panel called Kirk and Spock: Do They or Don’t They?. 

It was, by all accounts, the most well attended event at the convention and quite boisterous. At the panel were Leslie Fish, Gerry Downes, and Gayle F. Carol Frisbie, editor of Thrust, informed the audience that Gene Roddenberry knew about K/S and had told them that, “as long as it stays underground, and away from the mothers of America,” he had no problem with it.

Parts of the panel went unintentionally public when a problem with the hotel sound system inadvertently projected the voice of Connie Faddis reading aloud from an explicit story into the hallway. And while the panel was controversial and generated loud objections (see the LOCs in issues #12 and #14 of Menagerie), the convention organizers pointed out afterwards in Menagerie that when the panel was announced in the convention progress report: “Ten people volunteered to be 'pro’ the K/S relationship; no one volunteered to be 'con.’ We had to draft the opposition.”…….

Also see The SekWester*Con Porn Debate and The Sound and the Fury: The First Panel Discussion About K/S. For a broader discussion of these issues see Slash Controversies and History of K/S Fandom.”

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