Ryan Kopf and Sexual Assault
Download Ryan Kopf’s Criminal Background Report
Fact: Ryan Kopf has never even been so much as arrested.
The truth is plain as day when you review the record. Court records in Iowa show I have been in several lawsuits – this is pretty common for any corporate CEO or large corporation. None of these are sexual assault related.
Why create this website anyway?
It is very easy for someone to write a poorly researched blog post on the internet. Blogs are one-sided points of view, without any context or references to back them up. And it’s easy to create a compelling narrative when you control the medium through which it is conveyed.
“Ryan Kopf is a terrible guy who cheats attendees and doesn’t pay his taxes, avoid his conventions,” is an easy story to write. Nobody wants to feel taken advantage of, so unknowing people will be taken in by slanders and share these stories.
I started my first convention in 2010 to bring happiness to fellow fans like me. During High School, I did nothing but stay at home and read, no social skills or practice to speak of, and few enough friends that I could count them on my hands. This changed when I attended my first convention, and met people in the same boat. We didn’t like going to football games and getting drunk in parking lots like other teenagers – we wanted to play Pokemon cards instead.
I learned a lot about people, their hopes, their dreams, and what it really means to be happy. I’ve made countless lifelong friends.
And I want to bring this happiness and joy to more people.
Some people lack self-satisfaction with their lives. They aren’t working every single day, 10 hours a day, to make other people happy. And this is where the rumors and smear campaigns against me begin.
Help me continue to make a difference in people’s lives by sharing my side of the story.
But why are there multiple people saying this?
If you look closely, you will notice similarities among these anonymous social media accounts, and you might learn that most of them are created by the same person. One ardent supporter of these rumors is, for example, an ex-girlfriend whom I had a restraining order against. The order lasted only six months, and so unfortunately there’s nothing to be done about the online abuse.
AnimeCon.org’s stance on sexual assault.
The accusations against me and my company have been a tragedy for everyone involved, but they have also been an experience to learn. It has encouraged my organization to take any reports of sexual assault or sexual harassment more seriously than any other conventions. I started by writing one of the most comprehensive and honest harassment policies ever seen at a convention.
I think protecting people goes beyond just a written policy. I have personally seen conventions use their written policies as a shield for bad behavior, saying “That can’t possibly have happened here, we have this great policy.” Enforcing my policy as vigorously as I do even earns us negative feedback.
We do not tolerate harassment, sexual assault, or assault at our events.