Finding a community of "People Like You" can make or break someone's journey into a new field. That means the hacker community at large needs to be equally supportive of queer hackers, or a queer hacker sub-community must form.
I'm all for the former, but let's face it: historically, us straight white males (who make up the vast majority of contemporary hackerdom) are pretty awful at making people who "Aren't Like Us" feel comfortable & welcome. (Hell--we have a hard enough time staying comfortable with eachother.)
Actually I think gays are well represented in tech because geeks tend to be more inclusive than other subgroups. I'm gay, have been very successful in tech, and have never felt unwelcome in the industry.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the Bay Area is a mecca for both geeks and gays. Something about the culture here accepts people of all varieties.
However, this is not true for old-school business types. Golfing to network, sports talk, trophy wives, talking about Entourage... all that is very foreign to me and yes I feel out of place around it.
I want to be outraged when someone isn't treated equally because they're gay, I don't want to celebrate when someone who's gay isn't treated negatively.
You are correct; it does not reflect equality. But, unfortunately, it does reflect reality. In addition to being outraged at our distance from equality, I believe it is constructive to celebrate each step we take towards that goal.
To an extent, sure. To use Obama as an example (black instead of gay, but close enough), the fact that he proved a black man can get elected is fantastic, I have to admit that (I'm English) my views of America are very strongly tainted by the large amounts of racism there, both historically and today, and it's great to know that it's not quite as bad as I feared. But that's just a footnote in my mind, the fact that he's black didn't make me want him to become president - though as it happens, I did/do support him, but for his politics rather than his being a minority.
The way we become equally supportive of each other is by not forming little "sub-communities" based on race, religion, gender, orientation, eye color, hair color, car color or anything else. I don't care if the person helping me with some code is black or gay or from an alternate universe where ducks invented the transistor, but if Mr. Quackers only feels comfortable in his interdimensional hyperduck clique, he won't be able to share his knowledge with me and vice versa.
Forming isolated cliques is definitely a risk. However, not all sub-communities are isolated. When you're "Doing It Right," sub-communities exist to support their members in joining the parent community. If you're a Ruby programmer, you're much more likely to go to a conference if there's a Ruby panel!
In that example, the Ruby "sub-community" (panel) serves 3 functions: It gives skeptical Rubyists a "safe place" to base their experience; it gives curious non-Rubyists an entry point to start learning; and it creates an organizational "bucket" for Ruby-related discussion, so it doesn't clog other panels (as much, maybe).
Of course, "Ruby" is a separation by technical necessity, whereas "Queer" is a cultural one. I'd be remiss in claiming that the exact same forces were at work. My main point is simply:
In a perfect world, sub-communities would not be necessary. In the real world, sub-communities--when managed properly--can be a huge asset to prospective novices who don't belong to the majority.
Finding a community of "People Like You" can make or break someone's journey into a new field.
I can trace my current job situation back to a boyfriend I had in college. Job prospects were low in 2002, but he knew someone who could use a CS intern. The acquaintance created a job for me and I've been in similar fields ever since.
Maybe it's that. Or maybe they feel that clique-tracking in this environment is noise and doesn't belong here. Or they had a bad day and are taking it out on HN. Don't assume you know some anonymous person's motivations.
When's the last time you downvoted every single comment in a thread because you thought the conversation didn't belong on HN? Never, because there's a flag button that actually might accomplish your goal of getting the discussion off of HN, takes way less time, and doesn't harm people that choose to take part in off-topic conversation.
If there really is someone downvoting every comment here, they're homophobic. I promise.
You're quite right. But after a lifetime of minor slights, forgive me a little paranoia :-) (I note said unknown has already downvoted your comment, too)
