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▲ bramhaag 4 hours ago

> he's an excellent advocate for a healthy and positive community

The reactions about this when announced on Reddit seem to contradict that:

  > I'm a little disappointed that u/geerlingguy is the one running it, since he's posted some shitty beliefs about gay people that, to my knowledge, he has never retracted or disavowed. 

  > So he can tell all the women there they have no right to their own body? 

  > Hmmm I didn't know Jeff was anti-gay and anti-women's rights. 

  > Hi u/geerlingguy ! Are gay people allowed to attend your event?

etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1wq04et/im_startin...

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1wq2orh/jeff_ge...

▲loufe 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I wasn't aware he's publicly said anything like this, but I've always assumed he was quite religious so I'm not particularly surprised.

To be fair, this is a pretty tame and measured expression of disapproval of the modern societal acceptance of homosexuality. I honestly don't know what more I could ask for, in modern societal discourse, for someone I disagree with in terms of how they go about expressing it: the links I read seem to imply he was honest, polite, and clear on his feelings, not inciting hate, violence, or spewing vitriol. Jeff's views are his own, and maybe the crux here is that I don't see politely disagreeing about the righteousness of living homosexually as remotely severe enough to warrant this much attention considering the quality of character of a lot of public figures visible to those of us outside the USA.

I admit seeing a response like this irks me as I feel it needlessly detracts from the mission. That said, it's both A) fair and a good thing to judge and critique any public figure's character and I do think public figures and their views deserve scrutiny, and B) a means to continue to allow powerful people and groups to assassinate the character of and dilute the message of people who run contrary to their goals. I'm genuinely torn on how to feel about how to feel here. I worry we allow ideas to be discarded at the first sign of something we disapprove of in people who share them -which is wrong-, yet several of my best friends are queer and I also could not stand to see them trod upon. Those same queer friends all have views and personality flaws which would be judged just as harshly by others.

Regardless, I don't like you using my excerpt that way. Not everyone's views of "community" mean the classic cancel culture era idiosyncratic definition whereby anyone in any role remotely resembling leadership must share the same specific set of homogeneous views on political and cultural issues to be given any member's "consent" to lead a group. I stand by what I said and still do believe Jeff is an excellent advocate for these ideas. There are obvious limits, to be clear, I would never go to Toastmasters if the local club head spoke about killing jews, but this isn't that and IMO there are so, so many more important battles to go fight out there than this.

▲bramhaag 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Everyone draws their own boundaries based on what is important to them. I do not think your example is unreasonable.

But the homelabbing scene, and many parts of tech in general, are generally more inclusive than many other scenes, perhaps partly because we have a very diverse community in the first place. I think it is important context, and not just a needless detraction, for a physical gathering that the organizer does not share these views.

Regardless, I do not think any interpretation of "positive community" can include the dejection of homosexuality.

▲ 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
▲sippingabonedry 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe don't spread Reddit cancer by copy/pasting it here.

Whoever vouched to unflag this garbage personal attack is actively furthering the ongoing destruction of this site.

▲kortilla 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Many churches believe they have a “healthy and positive” community along with their constituents while espousing those same views.

A community can simultaneously be healthy and positive while being politically disagreeable to others.