https://web.archive.org/web/20250520182445/https://rosenzwei...
The board is 7 people. I'm unclear what makes this awkward or inconvenient.
Regardless of your political or religious views on people's right to exist, simple politeness if nothing else should prevent this sort of comment. I assume you wouldn't say it to their face, so why say it here?
I know it can be at times grating to constantly hear about stuff like this, but I can assure you folks like Alyssa would rather focus on techie stuff rather than have to ask for help so they can stay safe. For them that worry is now always present and it’s not something they can ignore.
Many people in her situation are not lucky enough to be in a mental or physical position to be able to pursue this sort of work or take advantage of their talent, and that is in large part due to the persistent and long-standing discrimination trans people face.
Even if one is totally self-interested, it pays not to discriminate. Even if one can't muster up even a little decency to not discriminate because, ya know, it's wrong.
However, you could look at it the other way - if you take any group of 5-10 people I bet they're disproportionately something. Very few groups are selected evenly from all of humanity.
The banker thing would be bad optics because of conspiracies about it, but I'm not aware of an equivalent.
Except, you know, these specific people are openly trans and explicitly choosing for themselves to make a point about it.
Edit: I'm proposing a selection effect here, where people with these challenges gravitate towards spaces and communities where they don't feel confronted by them as often.
I hope it's clear that I am not trying to speak authoritatively and that this is more or less a total guess on my part based on some pretty superficial analysis.
There's also high overlaps between trans and non-neurotypical types. I'd suggest there's the same crossover between non-neurotypical and tech circles so makes sense there's a higher instance of trans in tech.
I'd also suggest that on some level coming out as trans is basically hacker mentality. "This hardware/wetware doesn't look/perform correctly. Let me get a soldering iron/rewrite some code/clothing/hormones/surgery and change that."
Could it be that they also happen to be autistic? There appears to be a pattern I've noticed where a large number of trans developers are also autistic. This may be responsible for a lot of the passion and dedication required to work on projects like this. (Mostly video game) Emulation is another field that seems to have a similar overlap. Some might say Rust is another one.
I hope it was the former, but that's why I didn't want to just assume the OPs intention.
I agree with that statement, but consistently calling it out kinda seems to be having the opposite effect.
If the original commenter said something like "it's inspiring that a trans person could overcome all odds and have such an accomplishment" then that comment has value. Randomly pointing out that the author is trans with zero context has no positive value.
“Asahi Linux wouldn’t exist without trans people. No one realizes how much Linux progress, and especially how much Linux graphics/gpu progress, hinges on trans people. Perhaps the selfish motivation of wanting Linux to succeed will make HN readers less placidly tolerant of trans hate in the future.”
But, as one of those “wait, you’re trans?!” people who silently contributes to projects without labeling myself, I get how it could be confusing. Hope that helps!
I always hope for the latter, but context and mood are impossible to communicate easily online which is why I was asking for clarification.