- In the 70s gay people could lose their livelihood if someone invaded their privacy and outed them.
- The hanky code became a subversive part of gay (& kink) culture which allowed people to reveal themselves to people in the know without risking their livelihood. Different colours and pockets indicated preference.
- These days it’s universally agreed that being straight or gay should not rightly affect someone’s livelihood.
- Within the Drupal community, Larry Garfield has had to write about his preference for sub-dom relationships after others started outing him.
- Even after he was repeatedly found not to have breached the community’s code of conduct he was forced out of the offical roles he had in the community.
- I don’t think it’s anyone’s business what colour handkerchief people have, where they keep them but it seems Dries Buytaert and the Drupal leadership do.
- Dries proudly claims these exclusionary practices are their values. By implication, invading people’s privacy and outing them do not fall outside these values.
- Reading Larry’s and Dries’ posts, I can’t help but think there but for an accident of timing go I.
Noted March 24, 2017
You’re always welcome in my communities. ?
Thanks so much for posting about this Peter! ? Larry’s post was amazingly open and honest and I felt horrible that he ended up in that situation ? Personal lives should never matter in open source communities. Contributing and doing the work is all that matters!