Erik Henriksen of The Portland Mercury has been reporting on it, Mike Russell over at Culture Pulp told others about it, and Portland's The One True B!X (one of CSTS's founders) has been trying for months to get the event organizers to admit publicly what happened, and here are the big points:
The person responsible for the Denver funds simply disappeared with $1,900 from that screening, and $5,600 from the Dallas/North Texas event somehow got "lost" after entering an account held by that event's organizer. Said organizer is, in B!X's words, now "under a signed agreement to make monthly payments over the next two years to Equality Now." That $5,600 will get repaid -- eventually -- but that $1,900 might as well be in a Swiss vault or Bin Laden's cave: we're not gonna find it. And that stinks.
None of this bilking, I'm relieved to say, has anything to do with Portland's CSTS, the highest-earning event of the last two years, and which is run with complete transparency with the help of the nonprofit that runs the Hollywood Theatre that'll be hosting the screenings. I'm still going, and I'm still donating. I have my ticket for Friday night waiting at the Hollywood's Will Call. Two cities out of 40 had their events go wrong; this year that needs to be zero out of the 40-plus cities holding events this time.
I share some of B!X's feelings about keeping this on the down-low until so soon before this year's event. I say "some" because I haven't been wrapped up in the aftermath for months like he has; I can just vent on B!X's behalf. (More followup is over at Whedonesque.)
Bottom line: THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. Make sure it doesn't happen again.