Obviously not a 'local' to Swancon, but if my 'disabled but dislikes using the actual word' credits have any value, here are my two cents.
I think if you want to talk about disability then you need to do it as part of the main con, not as a sub part of a sub con. If you only wanted to discuss disabled women then Gynaecon might be a suitable venue, but even then I would have my doubts.
Being or becoming disabled doesn't automatically make you sympathetic to feminism or comfortable in the presence of feminists, so by piggy-backing on their con you would risk making some disabled peeps feel excluded. This is I feel the single most important issue. A raving right wing white middle class male who is disabled should feel just as welcome at your panel as any other disabled person, if it is at Gynacon he will feel either excluded or be so defensive he will end up being attacked which will disrupt and upset the entire thing. (Since mentally I equate with a right wing middle class male, I am pretty much speaking from the heart here.)
And, as you know from your own experiences, being feminist doesn't automatically make someone sympathetic or helpful on disability issues, let alone knowledgeable, so to give the Gynacon folks the privilege of having the talk on their turf is to give that privilege to people who neither need it nor may make the best use of it.
Yes, I would hope that many of the people at Gynacon would be sympathetic to and interested in the cause, but that just means do some advertising in places they specifically will hear about it - either at Gynacon or in the female toilets if that is their chosen space - it doesn't mean you should transfer ownership of an entirely separate issue to Gynacon.
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I think if you want to talk about disability then you need to do it as part of the main con, not as a sub part of a sub con. If you only wanted to discuss disabled women then Gynaecon might be a suitable venue, but even then I would have my doubts.
Being or becoming disabled doesn't automatically make you sympathetic to feminism or comfortable in the presence of feminists, so by piggy-backing on their con you would risk making some disabled peeps feel excluded. This is I feel the single most important issue. A raving right wing white middle class male who is disabled should feel just as welcome at your panel as any other disabled person, if it is at Gynacon he will feel either excluded or be so defensive he will end up being attacked which will disrupt and upset the entire thing. (Since mentally I equate with a right wing middle class male, I am pretty much speaking from the heart here.)
And, as you know from your own experiences, being feminist doesn't automatically make someone sympathetic or helpful on disability issues, let alone knowledgeable, so to give the Gynacon folks the privilege of having the talk on their turf is to give that privilege to people who neither need it nor may make the best use of it.
Yes, I would hope that many of the people at Gynacon would be sympathetic to and interested in the cause, but that just means do some advertising in places they specifically will hear about it - either at Gynacon or in the female toilets if that is their chosen space - it doesn't mean you should transfer ownership of an entirely separate issue to Gynacon.