people love making shit like this the problem of non-binary people who are assumed to be men and trans women who are assumed to be men instead of just kicking people who behave badly by pushing and shoving from the event. it really has played into the division that transphobes are trying to sow.
I would appreciate more detail on how they determined whether people were lying or not, especially considering there would be no advantage to lying since the article mentions that self-identifying men were permitted to attend the event.
Yeah, that’s extra sketchy. Gives me more of the impression that by “female and non-binary” they meant “cis women and some enbys & trans women IF they dress up feminine”. In an event that doesn’t bar men from entering, why would any guy lie about their gender identity? What’s the prize, getting to enter a convention that you could have entered if you didn’t lie anwyays? As a trans woman that still presents masculine and has not started any HRT, it wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed I was just lying about my identity to… I dunno, score brownie points I guess?
“There were just a lot of men in the comments on anonymous profiles being like, ‘Well Don't hate the player, hate the game,’” Barman said. “Basically proving that they are men, they're not actually non-binary, and that they very much came [to the conference] in an aggressive nature to take space.”
And according to people on Twitter and TikTok, women were literally being shoved out of place and jumped in front of in lines, and lots of these men had “he/him” on their badges as their pronouns. These were cis men being jerks.
People are upset because a lot of masc-presenting people crowded the job fair, cut in line, and shoved people out of the way. Others who were attending expected the conference to be a place safe from that sort of aggression & it wasn’t.
A lot of these conferences have contracts with conference venues that kinda locks them in for hosting the conference at that location multiple years in a row.
This is just disgraceful. I understand times are tough, but to basically ruin an event just for your own personal gains. It’s just not right.
Is there any way this can be prevented in the future?
Agreed. Desperation or entitlement (the admission fee makes me think the latter)? Either way, I don’t think I could imagine being at a level of either to intrude like that.
I’d need to know more. A lot of people in tech are assigned male at birth, but identify as either non-binary or trans. There is also another lot of toxic “tech bros”, but unless this was specifically a “woman is only one that can give birth” event, or the ones sneaking in were of the toxic kind, I otherwise don’t see the problem.
These guys were toxic. Apparently women were getting shoved out of the way, and men were jumping over escalators to get in line first, cutting in front of people, and generally being entitled jerks.
That sounds awful. Sniping the tickets then reselling them, is an extra low. Sounds like the organizers messed up things big time, and the worst came out of the woodwork to take advantage.
You’ve got a point, and individually I wouldn’t dare to question someone’s gender (I barely have a grip on my own :)
All I have is the article provided. A little searching did get me to this article which details some very awful behavior though.
I guess it’s more that the purpose for this entire event, to give (trans)women and non-binary people opportunities to establish a career in tech and to celebrate them, is being subverted. Space and time was limited and the extra influx of men (who clearly weren’t there for the main purpose but to job hunt) put a big strain on both.
There’s not much you can do about it, but that doesn’t make it right.
Is there any way this can be prevented in the future?
Unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to add prevention measures that wouldn’t also open the door for some insanely transphobic practices. I think this is one of those things where you have to really rely on good faith behavior from the local community/people signing up for the event
I can understand that sentiment. Plenty of things running on good faith have been chugging along just fine, and considering this conference has been happening annually since 2006 without any prior issue like this worth noting, it seems like that’s been doing a pretty good job up until now. Again, not sure what measures could be taken that wouldn’t also be incredibly invasive, transphobic, or a combination of the two.
Well, I suppose it’s a matter of whether or not the length of good years mitigates the problems created by a bad one. I didn’t see them mention any steps to mitigate this in the future so hopefully they come up with something, as this will likely end up being the same result so long as job conditions stay as they are.
Yeah, I dunno what can be done to prevent this in the future but hopefully the event organizers can come up with something that doesn’t amount to a “you must look -this- feminine to enter” sign by the entrance lol
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