Was surprised no one bothered to post this give how big of a reaction this story got.
Wanted to post the update and correction cause that deserves to be seen just as much. This seems like a reasonable, thoughtful handling of the issue.
I still don’t really wanna use Ubuntu though 😅
Normalizing diversity is critically important.
And what better way to normalize diversity in this context than ignore everything but the code you submit ? We are talking about code, not personal issues.
I mean, I don’t care that the bus driver who take me to the office this morning is gay/trans/whatever, why I should care about this for the person that send me a code contribution ? Being queer make the code inherently better ? Or bad code should be accepted because a queer person send it ?
As I see it, you send good code it is merged, you send bad code it is refused and, most importantly, it was explained why the code is not good enough to be accepted. Nowhere in this flow knowing that you are a queer has any importance.
That’s hiding it, not normalizing it.
No, that’s treating you as a normal person irregardless of the private aspects of your life. You are free to disclose them and I am free to ignore them since in this context I don’t care, and I don’t see why I should care, about them.
Else explain to me how being a queer/gay/trans/whatever impact on the submitted code or contribution.
The impact on submitting code is entirely besides the point.
It’s not normalizing it if nobody knows. That’s just a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Why in this context I need to know that ? And why in this context I would like to ask about this ? How it is pertinent ?
My point is simply that there are situations where these kind of information are not needed nor usefull. I am not saying that this is valid everywhere and every time but that there are places where knowing that the person you are talking to is a queer is important, situation where it is not important and situation where merely asking for that information is dangerous.
In my view, on the Ubuntu’s discourse this is an information that is not relevant nor usefull to know.
Do you want to consider it as a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy ? Fine, I just try to treat people like they deserve in any case and to do this I don’t need to know these informations, a queer is a normal person to me when it comes to interact with him/her/whatever.
Whether it’s pertinent or not is irrelevant. Whether it’s useful to know is irrelevant. How they’re treated is (kinda) irrelevant.
This is about reminding people that diverse people exist and that they are normal human beings. If they choose to describe themselves that way in public we should let them. Though in this case since they describe themselves as a furry it only really normalizes it within fringe communities like the furry community, and queerness is already well accepted there.
Whatever, I still think that knowing such information in a technical forum is irrelevant and should not be asked or disclosed per se.
I will still treat the person as she deserve, with respect to the person if she is respectfull or as assholes if she is an assholes, irregarless how they choose to identify themself.
If you think it is wrong how I treat people think whatever you want, it is not my problem.
How you treat people is a whole different subject matter. I made no judgements about that.
This discussion is entirely on a queer person calling themselves queer in their Ubuntu-something profile. The impacts that has, and the impact concealing that information has.
It’s okay to be indifferent to queerness like you would be indifferent to race. My point is they should be free to express who they are.