Women and TLUG - a personal rant

[Renata Rocha]

I like TLUG a lot, and used to attend the meetings. But you haven't
seen me at the meetings in a while, and probably won't see me anytime
soon.

Some men who attend TLUG and we know who they are have a
predatory/harassing behaviour when in presence of women. If you attend
TLUG, have seen this happen and have ignored this behaviour of your
colleague, you are enabling violence against women to keep happening
at the TLUG environment, and keeping women away from the group.

I have myself promised not to come back to the meetings while I see
this kind of harassment in public being ignored, and the people who do
it not held accountable for their actions.

What you can do: talk to these members and make them at least
apologize for their actions and make women feel safe and comfortable
again at the TLUG meetings. I'd love to learn and hang out with you,
but your environment is not welcoming for me and for other women in IT
I know. We're in this for the same reason as everyone else - learning
and sharing.

(Yes yes I realize there's more than man/woman in the world, but for
this case specifically I wanted to keep the universe limited. )

Renata Rocha
http://renata.org
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