By all accounts, Emily Rose is a perfectly nice young woman who love the CW TV series Supernatural. And she loves writing fan fiction, especially the erotic kind where she and her friends near and far fantasize about a passionate gay love affair between Dean Winchester and the fallen angel Castiel. Writing about two characters in a ‘secret’ sexual relationship is called “shipping,” a cute little portmanteau word. The often-speculated-upon mash-up (literally) of Dean and Castiel even has its own portmanteau, its version of Brangelina: Destiel.

That’s what Emily Rose does. She ships Destiel, and has a lot of fun doing it. And apparently for that, and that alone, she was pulled out of the audience at ChiCon, the Chicago Comics Convention and banned from attending — a mean, ugly, and absolutely pointless display that embarrassed the hell out of her and damaged the experience for a whole lot more. Now it’s blown up into a small but significant kerfuffle on the intertubes.

What the hell?

This seems to have a whole lot to do with the growing trend to public threats of retribution and a panic-stricken response to same.  It’s swirling around the whole “GamerGate” controversies, and please, just google it, don’t make us explain it. The point is, there are more and more ‘real world’ consequences to just enjoying yourself — innocently, if a little wildly-and-woolyly — on the intertubes. And if they’re coming for sweethearts like Emily Rose, who isn’t a hater and never has been… how long before somebody who simply says, “I think (( SUCKS!” gets barred from entering the SDCC? ‘Cause when that happens, folks, half the AmityvilleNow.com staff is going to be grabbing a late lunch in the Gaslamp and catching the train home. Seriously.

Interested? Maybe living well (or getting better traffic) is the best revenge. You can read Emily Rose’s whole side of the story here.  You can add her on Twitter here. Or visit her WordPress blog here. It’s all kind’a weird and terribly wrong. This crap has got to stop.