Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog

Jon maddog Hall

If you are homophobic, you probably want to stop reading now. Just go to the next blog, or dial up Fox News, because the rest of this blog entry will not be satisfying for you. Do not worry, you will be able to read my next blog, just not this one.

And if you have read this one already, I have added some answers to the comments below on July 4th, 2012.

What is going on?

Today I wrote an essay on Alan Turing and the 100th anniversary of his birthday.

I have made no bones about the fact that Alan Turing is a hero to me. I have had several heroes, among them:

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

Abraham Lincoln (not just because he freed the slaves, but because he was one of the greatest humans of all time)

Hedy Lamarr

Theodore Roosevelt

Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens

and many more people that I “respect”, although they do not quite reach “hero” status with me.

Many of those people are still alive, and to mention them here would surely embarrass them, since they tend to be modest people.

Alan Turing, however, is different.

He did so much for the industry with which that I have spent the last 42 years of my life.

His brilliance helped defend the world against an unspeakable evil that engulfed whole nations, and turned Christian men and women against others seen as different from themselves.

His country (and his world) hated him so much that they chemically castrated him, insulted him, and deprived him of the one thing he lived for, his work.

You can try to sugar-coat the events by saying “it was the law of the time”, but “the time” was not that long ago, and in some places “that time” still exists.

And why this effects me is that I too, am homosexual.

What do you mean by that?

This announcement will surprise some people, and not surprise others. I have “come out” to some people (usually my closest friends) and not others. I do not “flaunt” my homosexuality, neither do I lie about it. If people ask me directly about my homosexuality, I tell them.

My physical appearance and mannerisms defy the stereotypes that most people have of male homosexuals. Many people would never guess that I am homosexual, even if they knew me a long time.

I come from a different time. Born in 1950 in Baltimore, Maryland I remember “the black persons' water-fountain” and the “white people only” lunch-counter. I remember when “negros” went to the back of the bus, and as a young boy of eight or nine years, I did not think anything about it. It was “natural”. Even the church and Bible talked about slaves and slavery being “natural”. “Negros” were inferior to white people, or so we were told.

Then in the early 1960s a few brave people stood up and said “No, I think you are wrong”, and the beginning of “civil rights” started to happen. Some brave politicians lost their elected positions, some brave people lost their jobs and some really brave people lost their lives over that fight.

But somewhere in the midst of all that, I heard this message: "It is not the color of the skin that makes a person...it is what is inside". I would like to say that message is now in the hearts and heads of all my fellow countrymen, but I know it is not. Today I still hear the name calling and the hate against different races.

As I grew older I noticed the way my mother and father interacted. Dad was “the head of the house”, and Mom was the “mother”. They consulted on things, but Dad was the final decision maker. I must admit that Dad was wise, and often listened very close to “Mom” before making “his” decision, that often mirrored hers. But in Mom's mind it was “Dad's” money that he earned and brought home, and she was only the custodian of it. Because her religion told her that women were to be subservient to men.

As I absorbed this I also noticed the “Equal Rights Amendment” which was written to give women equal rights under the law. First proposed in 1923, passed out of Congress in 1972, it is still not an amendment to the United States Constitution, although it only needs three more states to ratify it.

Ironically, the country thought of by its inhabitants as “most free” and “most equal” seems to need an amendment to guarantee equality to about half its population because they are women.

To Mom's dying day I was never able to convince her that she was Dad's equal....but I tried.

For you see, as I grew older I noticed some things about myself.

First of all, I was not a “skirt chaser”. Unlike a lot of the other men I did not sit around looking at a woman's body with my tongue hanging out and making crude remarks about how I would try to get women into bed. My sex drive seemed to be very low, or non-existent...or so I thought. I am sure that the few women that came to know me in my university years (and who were good friends) were curious about my lack of “sex drive” compared to the other men they knew.

Later on (much later, after college) I noticed that while it was not women that caused me to stare, it was men. I began to realize that I was a homosexual.

For those of you who think that homosexuality is a “choice”, let me assure you that you are simply wrong. There is no choice. There is no decision that I made consciously or sub-consciously about my sexuality to make me this way. And as I became more aware of the issue, I tried “experiments” with women to at least to see if the condition was as I thought. The “experiments” were very successful...in convincing me I was a homosexual.

I believe sexuality is at least a two-dimensional array, with one axis being “sex drive” from “non-existent” to “maniac” and the other axis being “sexual orientation” from “completely homosexual” to “completely heterosexual”. Most (if not all) of the world lives within those two axis. I am “low-sex-drive/completely homosexual”.

Also let me say that there is a difference between love and sexual love. I believe in the “layers” of love most easily described by:

Eros – Erotic Love

Philos – Brotherly Love

Agape – Divine Love

For almost everyone I meet I eventually fall into “Philos” with them. This does not mean I want to have sex with them, but I do enjoy a hug or some other body contact. It is not sexual, it is human.

All of the web pictures of me typically have me with my arm around a person's shoulders or waist. I am not reaching for their crotch or other “sexual” parts. I feel no lust for them, just a human closeness.

Why tell us now?

Good question.

For a long time I was careful about who to tell about my homosexuality for two reasons:

I did not want my Mother and Father to find out

I did not want my sexuality in any way to hurt Linux and Free Software

My Mother and Father were fundamentalist Christians, who took the Bible very literally. They believed that the universe was about 6000 years old, and very definitely did not support the work of Charles Darwin. I did not realize this little “fact” until I was in university, and I found it odd that they had not said anything to me about it when I was bringing home fossils of sea creatures that had been dead for millions of years. Later they told me that they wanted me to form my own opinions about religion and to lead my own life. I am grateful to them for this attitude, but I knew there was at least a minor difference between dead sea fossils and thinking that your youngest son is going to burn in hell for being a homosexual. Knowing that I had failed in convincing my mother that she was the equal to my father, I probably would have little success in this latest Biblical endeavor.

As most of you know, my mother and father died last year, so this announcement will not affect them.

On the second point I have been extremely lucky in my life to have grown up in technologically advanced surroundings. Most of the people in my world of electronics and computers were like the mathematicians of Alan Turings' time, highly educated and not really caring whether their compatriots were homosexual or not, or at least looking beyond the sexuality and seeing the rest of the person.

In fact, computer science was a haven for homosexuals, trans-sexuals and a lot of other “sexuals”, mostly because the history of the science called for fairly intelligent, modern-thinking people. Many computer companies were the first to enact “diversity” programs, and the USENIX organization had a special interest group that was made up of LGBT people.

That is not to say that all computer science people are homosexual, or even non-homophobic, but for the most part the CS community and companies have been more accepting and accommodating than others.

Nevertheless, as I went through life I have sometimes found that the people that should be the most understanding and accepting are not, and I did not want this to reflect upon Linux or FOSS in any way.

However several things have recently urged me to reconsider and make this “announcement”:

The realization that closeted homosexuals allow others to think we do not exist, or exist in fewer numbers than we do, or we do not exist in “their back yard”, all of which allows them to believe we do not exist, or think of us as monsters. It is a lot harder to hate LGBT people in general when you have a son or daughter, uncle or aunt, next door neighbor or friend who is LGBT.

The assertion of some heterosexual people that we can not be role models for young people, that somehow homosexual people have no redeeming qualities because of our sexuality, and we can not be good parents.

The entire marriage equality issue, amplified for me due to several of my peer group dying without ever having been “married”, despite being faithful to their partners for fifty or sixty years.

The positions of various countries such as Russia, many African countries, and others who not only do not recognize homosexuals, but often put them in jail or put them to death.

The position and actions of various U.S. “churches” who actively promote harm to homosexuals both in the United States and in other countries. Their use of my tax dollars to sustain these churches in their fight to deny me rights particularly infuriates me.

The number of suicides in LBGT youth, and the need for younger homosexuals to have role models to show them it does get better.

get better. Getting to know people in some countries outside the United States, where a statement of your homosexuality is met with a shrug rather then a condemnation, and the embarrassment that “the land of the free” is so far behind. I remember with great warmth the email message from a (heterosexual) friend in Argentina who wrote me on the day Argentina granted marriage equality..."I am so proud of my country today." I wish I could be as proud of the United States.

My study of Alan Turing, his work and life reflected back on my own life, and this year being the 100th anniversary of his birth.

For years I have been talking in FOSS lectures about the things that happened in 1969, including my first program, the beginning of Unix, the beginning of the ARPAnet and the birth of Linus Torvalds, but one additional thing happened in the birth of “Gay Liberation” at the Stonewall Inn in New York City.

The same march that brought Civil Rights to African Americans started in that year and in that place. Until this year I have not been a part of it. My sexuality was not a big part of my life.

But earlier this year I began donating to the marriage equality campaign in New Hampshire. I began staffing the phones in call centers when the New Hampshire Republican controlled House looked as if they would repeal marriage equality (they have not...yet), and I patiently explained to my next-door neighbor of twenty years (also my representative to the New Hampshire legislature) that I was a homosexual and that marriage equality would not bring the destruction of New Hampshire.

It has been in the push for this one issue that I have seen really horrible statements put forth about homosexuals which told me that I just could not keep silent any more.

About fifteen years ago I wrote an letter for the Linux Journal where I stated what I believe, and I am dusting it off for here:

I believe in free speech, a democratic process and freedom of choice.

I believe in non-violence and have never physically hurt anyone in anger.

I have never been in jail, never been arrested and have received only two speeding tickets (which I paid) in my entire life.

I do not believe that killing a human being for anything less than immediate threat of life (my own or another person's) is ever justified, yet I would go to war to protect my country and its ideals if we were attacked.

I believe in equality of the races and sexes, and I believe in honoring diversity in religion and sexual orientation.

I believe that the duty of government is to honor the will of the majority as long as it does not violate the rights of the minority.

I honor laws, even those that I am not completely happy about, believing that it is better to change them than to break them.

I encourage people to think about what the law means, and what it would be like if there were no laws.

I have never even been accused in court (local, state or federal) of being a monopoly, breaking the law or knowingly harming another person's business or the consumer by my business tactics.

I believe in honor and living an honorable life.

A few years ago I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper regarding marriage equality, and that too is worth reviewing:

As agents of hate, some people do not support same-sex marriage citing irrational fears, unproven consequences, a poor sense of civil history, and reactions to the decades of hatred by others. My parents are 88 and 86 years of age, married for 66 years. They still think of African Americans as "inferior". If you called them racist or hateful, they would be insulted....but they are racist, and the thought is hateful.

Come with me to my favorite breakfast diner, where I sit in the corner and listen to the conversations about the "fruits, fairies, and faggots". Try to watch the Ellen Degeneres Show (hosted by a lesbian) with me on the TV at the diner. Unfortunately as soon as it comes on TV a person at the diner gets up to change the channel. The same person, every day. They do not watch th new show, they read their paper or talk to other people. When I asked why they changed the channel, they just mumble the word "disgusting".

Look over my shoulder as I read in the newspapers letters about how immoral homosexuals are, and how they are condemned to hell for feelings they have little control over, a feeling usually considered one of the most powerful in human experience. Turning from the editorial page, I read about homosexual teen-age suicides two to three times the rate of heterosexual teenage suicides.

Go onto the Internet with me, as I read about how Fred Phelps of Topeka Kansas and the members of his "church" talk about how God is ravaging the United States because of its "homosexual agenda". Know that if his church is burning, it is my tax dollars that pays the fire department to put it out.

Read with me the emails I get about a kid who was chased through the woods at the age of 17, having a knife held to their throat and called "fagot, fagot, fagot". Hard to believe? Remember Mathew Shepherd. Remember Harvey Milk.

Work with me while I sit up over the weekend writing a non-harassment policy for the computer club I formed fifteen years ago, something I never thought would be necessary. I do this not at my initiative, but because I am asked to do it by other members.

Sit at my the dinner table with my fundamentalist Christian relatives as they state why the entire world is crumbling because of the "homosexual agenda". Not because of greed, adultery, killing or the fear and hatred of other people, but because two people who love each other want to be "married".

Finally, please take this simple test with me:

Think about your family. Your loving wife and your children. You stood up in marriage so long ago. You pledged your love to your partner. You proudly take your married partner to parties, dances, office parties....something I am not able to do.

You had children. Perhaps you adopted them, but in either case you raised them and loved them. You are proud of their accomplishments. They make friends, play sports, get good grades at school. In many states I will never be able to adopt children.

They sign up for the military and they serve their country well. Then one day they show up at your door with a stranger, and a dishonorable discharge.

With tears in their eyes they tell you that they are homosexual. They tell you that they love the person that is with them, and want you to understand, love them and support their desire to marry. They want you to be proud of them and of their loved one.

Now here is the test. Do you:

Call them "faggot" and tell them to get out of your house forever? Tell them that they are going to burn in hell? Tell them you can "Accept, but not forget"? ("Don't ask, Don't tell?" Welcome both of them in.

Test over. How did you do?

As you can see, while I have been “invisible” for the most part, I have not been quiet.

Now on the anniversary of Alan Turnings' birth, I choose to be neither quiet nor invisible any longer.

What did that mean?

For the most part, and particularly in this blog, you will see no change. I am 61 years old...what you have seen is what you will get. I do not intend on any radical changes. I do not intend to combine my “religion” for Free Software with my “religion” for sexual freedom. I will not raise the issue of sexuality at conferences and in this blog. I feel that getting the word out about Free Software is at least as important as getting the word out about sexual freedom. I do not want one to interfere with the other.

Likewise I will honor the sexual mores of various societies while I am their guest.

However, if I am at a conference and the topic is raised by others, I will not back away from it, and if people need an ear or a shoulder to lean on with regard to this topic, I will be there.

On the other hand, in my Facebook pages or in my tweets you may see even more about homosexuality...not a huge amount...just a little more....sorry about that. If you do not like it, then “un-friend” and “un-follow” might be appropriate for you. I will not hate you for that, although I will admit to being a bit disappointed in you.

If you have gotten this far, I applaud you. I also hope that all my friends, both virtual and physical, heterosexual, homosexual, bi-sexual, trans-gender, trans-sexual and “other” will still come up, shake my hand and hug me....and want to have their picture taken with me as before.

Remember that I am exactly the same person as before...it is just you know a little more about me...in fact, you know EVERYTHING about me. I have no other 'secrets'.

Peace and Love to you all...and...Carpe Diem!

==========Addendum to the Post==========

First of all, let me say "Thank You" to all the people that supported me over the past couple of weeks since I wrote this Blog Post. While I have been humbled by the people who have heaped praises on me, I hope that some people, both LBGT and "straight", both “in” and “out” of the closet, and people that have friends and relatives that are LBGT have gained some insight and comfort from seeing the outpouring which I feel was not only for me, but for every LGBT person.

I appreciated a lot of the comments. I want to point out that at the age of 61 I do not feel particularly "brave" at coming out. The people who were brave were people from the beginning of the LGBT era, just as the people who fought for Civil Rights for African Americans in the early days of the movement were brave.

I have decided to turn off the comments on this blog entry. I believe that most things that might have been said have been said, but because there were some questioning statements made in the comments, I intend on addressing a few of them in italics below, hoping for closure on this issue in this place.

Finally, I appreciate that when people are typing in comments on a web site, despite the fact they try to be careful of what they say, sometimes their words come out wrong, and for some of my readers English is not their native language. If I have misunderstood you, please forgive me. I have also edited down some of the comments to save space. You can still read the full comments below.

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My quick note

Kay Hayen Jun 29, 2012 7:55am GMT

<some of the post removed>

As for you: I once saw you speak at Linuxtag Karlsuhe, and I was so deeply ashamed. That was because China was hold so high. I was so astonished, how Free Software used by Chinese to better control and suppress their people, found encouraging words, instead of critics. I found that made you no Freedom activist at all.

So well yeah, I don't bother you being homosexual. I don't even think you have to be somehow be better to make up for that. That China thing just tought me that anti-Microsoft can mean pro-China, a position I don't respect at all.

While this comment is not about homosexuality, I did want to address it here.

First of all, I have been to China four times, the first time starting in 1994, before I was involved with Linux. Over the next ten years I visited China three more times. I saw China (Chinese people, Chinese educators, Chinese business AND the government) starting to use Free Software, and I encouraged that.

What I was addressing in Karlsuhe is what I address around the world, that Free Software helps economies like China's move forward. Free Software gives people choice, allows industry to flourish, creates local jobs.

I was not praising the Chinese government for any "control and suppression of their people". I was using the example of the Chinese people to show a country moving ahead by the use of Free Software.

Recently I wrote a blog article about "not blaming the tool", which was aimed at the critics of Free Software being put into drone aircraft. I pointed out that if Free Software was not available, it would not stop the government from making drone aircraft, they would just use Microsoft or Apple's operating system, or some other code. We should not be stopping the use of Linux in these weapons. We should be stopping the use of these weapons, period.

Yours,

Kay

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Thank you

enon Jun 29, 2012 2:36am GMT

Maddog,

I am puzzled by this blog.

I am trying to understand its relevance. in the concept of "choice".

What is the difference in by what one chooses in the areas of operating systems and software by open source principles any different that one that chooses by what type of person they "choose" to be involved with sexually?

This is your statement:

"For those of you who think that homosexuality is a “choice”, let me assure you that you are simply wrong. There is no choice."

So are you implying that the human factor in any type of sexual activity is determine by a "proprietary" function? That there is no choice? That sounds somewhat strange, for someone who advocates choice when choosing software?

You misread my blog entry. I was not talking about the choice or non-choice of sexual activity. I was talking about not having a choice in my sexuality....just as you had no choice in the color of your eyes.

Hmmmm.....

Would you then state that we don't make choices, in regards to our sexuality? That we are nothing more mindless, proprietary, unable to choose, types of people?

I feel that "sexuality" is fixed. Some people choose to act on it differently. Some people choose to change their sex through an operation, but sexuality itself is not a choice.

You made a choice not to tell your parents about it. Why? Do you choose to have fear? Is that why you waited to tell people your choice until after they were gone?

I did not choose to tell my parents because they were both old and firmly set in their religion. For the people who knew them, or knew them through what I have written about them, my parents were two of the most loving, gracious people on earth. But their religion told them that homosexuals were going to go to hell.

I was the second (and last) child born to my mother. Even at my age of 50, she told me that she worried about "her baby". Imagine if I had told her of my sexuality...I did not want to hurt them. Unfortunately they are now both dead, but they can not be hurt by my admission any more.

I chose this particular date to disclose it widely due to the 100th anniversary of Turing's birth, just as I chose to write this set of answers on the United States' Independence Day.

Why did you choose to be afraid to tell the people around you about this? What difference would have made?

I was not afraid to tell people around me. Many (but not all) of my closest friends knew. I am the godfather of several children....I told their parents before I accepted that honor. And none of the people I told had any issue with it. However, in a lot of ways this is a self-fulfilling fact. I usually do not make friends with people who would have cared. And for some of my friends it never came up because there was no need to bring it up.

Everything in life is about choice. Everything.

From sex, to love, to belief, to friendship, to using software, to the home you live in, etc etc etc.

You are wrong. Many things in life are by choice, but not all of them. I tell people that most things in life are a choice, that most of life comes down to at least a binary function, "To do, or not to do". For example, religious beliefs are a choice.

The only thing we don't have a choice in is death.

It is inevitable.

And birth...that is at least two "non-choices"..certainly the baby does not "choose" to be born....could there be more? Did you choose to be as tall as you are? Real color of your hair? Some things are determined by genetics, of which we have no control. Perhaps in the future we will be able to control genetics.

Also, this staff of this magazine will make a choice on whether to approve this post.

That should be easy.

Actually they did not make the choice. They gave me incredible support on this "coming out", but they let me approve or disapprove each of these comments, and I CHOSE to approve every one entered (even yours), before I approved even the first one.

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interested

Sara Jun 28, 2012 4:14pm GMT

Hello,

I was just wondering why Hedy Lamarr is one of your heroes happy I don't know anything about her really, and I'm curious.

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/Heros/%28kategorie%29/0

I will also take this opportunity to tell you that even as a homosexual man, I do appreciate feminine beauty. When a beautiful woman walks in the room, I can appreciate it. Perhaps because I am homosexual I also greatly appreciate less "glamorous" women.

It is just I have no sexual attraction to any woman.

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pls rethink Teddy Roosevelt

Roland Jun 28, 2012 3:31pm GMT

Why TR? Yes, he helped Philippine nationalists (aka insurgents/terrorists) run the Spanish out of their country, but then the US Army stayed in the Philippines and crushed the independence movement. That's when the US Army invented water-boarding (aka the water cure). TR practically invented US imperialism. "Great White Fleet", what a load of BS.

Heroes are often not perfect. Even Lincoln, one of my greatest heroes, had his faults.

I enjoy the outdoors and President Roosevelt did a lot to start the National Park Service, and as far as what the U.S. Army did or did not do in the Philippines, that may or may not have been Roosevelt's fault.

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Congratulations for the article.

Congratulations

mitcoes Jun 28, 2012 2:27pm GMT

Are you sure it is a good choice to kill other innocents persons in a war for "your country"?

Where did I say that?

Your country that as you say do not recognize equal rights to you for being homosexual or for your mother for being woman?

My mother subjugated herself, driven by messages from her religion.

Your country at war killing innocent people at their own soil?

Your country defending the money of the 1% abroad killing people?

Your country, the only one that is always at any war killing people only because some corporations need to sell arms?

Not my country, not your country can ask us to kill innocent people as us and risk to being killed

My country is Planet Earth I would fight for rights, not for money.

You misread my statement.

I am a pacifist by nature and by nurture. What I said was, "I would go to war to protect my country and its ideals if we were attacked."

Until September 11th, 2001 my country had not been attacked since World War II. We were not attacked in the Korean War, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq etc

I respect many of the soldiers that went to war and were wounded and died for what they were told. I do not respect a lot of the leaders that made the choice of war and sent those soldiers to kill, be wounded and die.

PS: Swinger people is still at the other side of the mirror inside the closet, and there are everyday more swinger clubs.

Sorry, I have no idea what this means.

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interested in how it turns out

Brenda J. Butler Jun 28, 2012 4:02am GMT

You've said you aren't going to blog much (if at all) about your personal life in your existing blogs - I'd be interested to know how things go for you on the personal side after this announcement. So if you want to set up a blog or something just for that, I'd subscribe ...

This is why I am writing this addendum. So far nothing has happened on the “personal life” other than a lot of people writing to me and thanking me for doing this.

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2nd Greatest Commandment

Mike Jun 28, 2012 1:57am GMT

@eric

Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself:

Amen

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Who is Anonymous Coward ??

Anonymous Jun 27, 2012 1:23am GMT

Hi @Cyberspice,

I did read your post and I agree with some points but, I believe that religion, politics and technology are "not miscible". Do you not agree ?? Sorry but is my opinion.

@Jon Maddog Hall is a respectable icon of open source and free software community, but when you make posts like below:

"Even the church and Bible talked about slaves and slavery being “natural”. “Negros” were inferior to white people, or so we were told."

...maybe unconsciously, or not, he drive the opinion of a lot of people just because are your fans or by your position in the open source medium, but he don't talk that the United States, your country, and maybe by a inheritance of the @Cyberspice's country, United Kingdom (aka England), was the two countries governed by too bad politicians, that sponsored a lot of prejudice and violence against Negroes, homosexual, Mexicans, Latin Americans, Russians, and other groups, people and countries.

Hmmm. Germany? I seem to remember a skirmish that Mr. Turing participated in....I talk about some others below.

Please tell me where in the bible is written about "slavery is natural"

Slavery is rampant in the Bible. Try Leviticus 25:44-46. Or Exodus 21:2-6. Or selling your daughter as a sex slave in Exodus 21:7-11.

Even in the New Testament, Ephesians 6:5. Or 1 Timothy 6:1-2.

Read your Bible. ...really READ and THINK about it.

and about "Negroes where inferior to white people"???

This was the fall-out of the African slave trade. And how, in the taxation and representation of our country, as defined by Article I, Section 2 slaves were considered only 3/5th of a "free Person". As to the Church teaching this....remember that I was born in 1950. Even at the age of five I knew what people were saying. And it was NOT just “The Church”. I am not blaming them. It is just that I would have expected that there would have been more CHURCHES on the “other side”.

Well @Jon Maddog Hall, please, don't do any transfer of the "guilt" of your country and the american society

"American society"? Perhaps you are talking about the South Americans, like Brazil, where slavery was very rampant....and of course was supported by the Portuguese government of that time.

Greeks had slaves, as did the Egyptians.

And I seem to remember that Slavery was fairly common in many British colonies.

I think it is pretty universal in many societies that *some* people distrust and hate people different than themselves.

to any church, or any other groups, like Christians, because the Christians are guided by the same values cited by @CyberSpace in his latest post, like, "he who is without sin cast the first stone", "love your neighbour", "do unto others as you would do unto yourself" and "turn the other cheek", taught by Christ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d2n7vSPwhSU

Ever hear of the Westboro Baptist Church? It is another example.

Be careful with your opinions and words without foundation, because there a lot of millions of Christians, helping to promoting Linux and open source software. so say we all.

And I am one of those Christians. And I was thrilled to find the Unitarian Universalist Church, who believes in Abolitionism, Separation of Church and State and Ordination of Women and a welcoming acceptance of LGBT people.

When I was working for Marriage Equality in New Hampshire I was very pleased to experience a whole room full of Ministers, Rabbis, Quakers, Methodists, Episcopals, and other denominations of religions that were there to support our quest for Marriage Equality:

http://nhftm.org/about/religious-coalition-membership/

So for those of you who think I am against all Christians, you are wrong. I am actually FOR Christians. It is the people who pretend they are Christian that I do not like.

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Thanks!!!

Actuarially Sound Jun 26, 2012 10:04pm GMT

Thanks for coming out!!

Just by coming out you have done a huge service to the LGBT community.

While I'm gay and don't support gay marriage - I believe a child needs a mother and a father. Not a single mother, not a single father, not one father and multiple mothers, two mothers and not too fathers. I agree 100% with all your other points.

First of all, please separate the concept of two consenting adults being able to declare their love for each other and then to have the same protections and rights as every other devoted couple from parenthood/

Secondly, I take my hat off to all the single parents that try to make a good home for their children and struggle to do it. While I am sure that they would love to have a partner to help with the children, I am not going to bash them for not having a “significant other”. I know you probably meant that in a perfect world each child should have a “mother and a father”, but I could not let that statement go past.

Third, I think there are a whole bunch of children out there that would love to have two loving same -sex people love them and take care of them rather than being alone. I a gay couple who have “fostered” four young men. Each of those men grew up to be healthy, happy heterosexuals.

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Ok

arl Jun 26, 2012 8:21pm GMT

Ok - everyone should be what he/she is. Freedom of Love.

Btw. you forgot to send the photos you promised.

Arl, I am imperfect. Send your email address to "maddog AT li DOT org" and we will work it out.

//arl

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eric Jun 26, 2012 1:48pm GMT

MadDog

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Your blood will be upon you, You shall surely be put to death

eric

Eric....this will probably be my favorite response.

I have been studying this issue for about twenty years. It disturbed me that a all-loving God who sent his only son to die for our sins would create me, formulate me as homosexual, then threaten me with eternal flame and damnation.

So I started reading about it, and it turns out that the Bible went through several translations, re-arrangements, many copies, etc.

Take eating shellfish. Old Testament says it is bad. Supposedly in the New Testament that was wiped out. Some scholars point out that eating shellfish was not a sin (hellfire and damnation), it was just not thought of as "clean" (something to avoid, particularly if you were a Jew).

Sodom and Gomorrah - Some say it was sodomy that did them in (hellfire and damnation) and others say it was their inhospitable treatment of two strangers (never be inhospitable to angels).

There is a whole school of thought that talks about how various issues and passages in the Bible had to be taken in the context of the situation, and this created different meanings for words that could be translated two ways over the years.

There are passages in the Bible that talk about relationships between two men or two women with no condemnation of their actions. The Centurion with his favorite slave, for example. Some authorities question why the Centurion would be so worried about one slave if he was not having sexual relations with him, and if he was, why would Jesus cure the slave?

Also are “bad” homosexual affairs in the Bible (rape, incest, etc.) as well as “good” ones (which mirror consensual homosexual relationships today):

Ruth and Naomi have long been questioned with regards to a lesbian relationship. Were David and Jonathan along with Daniel and Ashpenaz homosexual lovers?

Finally, there is a very strange passage in the New Testament that talks about a naked young man with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane...

In any case, in my twenty years of thinking about this, I come back to the issue of WHY? WHY take what is normally one of the strongest physical needs we have and for some percentage of the population deny it, and threaten them to death if they follow that path? And if it is THAT bad, shouldn't it have been made into the 11th Commandment? If I am going to suffer Fire and Brimstone for the rest of eternity, surely it has to be worse than coveting?

Well Eric, it is too late for me anyway, as I have this Tux tattoo on my arm....(Leviticus 19:28). Mom and Dad did not know about that either.

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Thank you

MJH Jun 26, 2012 12:18pm GMT

My Dad linked me to this article. I know that I am very lucky to have accepting parents and to live in a place and time where I can openly tell others that I have a boyfriend. But I moderate a support forum for young gay people, and I also know that many people, even people in similar situations to me, cannot be so open about their sexuality. And I know that those people need people like you. People like you on the Internet, in magazines, on television, in music, or even just walking through town holding someone's hand.

You are the inspiration for the future and I thank you.

Your Dad is awesome. Of course you knew that.

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Linux Foss

Abhijit, India Jun 26, 2012 11:19am GMT

I didnt care for Linux or the Foss. They havent got very far, have they? And its not growing as much.

The article was just brought to my attention so I read it a few times over the whole forenoon of this working day.

If there are such wonderful people giving their lives to it, then it must be a thing worth doing.

I hope this will put to question some of those who are wondering why this post should have been part of this technical forum.

It is because this article alone could be a sufficient reason to validate your technical cause to outsiders like me.

Thank you.

I appreciated your post.

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Awesome post

Cyberspice Jun 26, 2012 8:39am GMT

What a great post this is!

To those who query what this has to do with OSS. I reckon that if you removed all the LGBT people from Silicon Valley companies the valley would grind to a halt. If you read the authors of many seminal open source pieces of software its like a whos' who of LGBT. The OSS movement is about freedom. This has to include the freedom of its developers to be who they need to be.

It is not my place to name the many people I know in CS who are LGBT. Some have been out for years. But they, like me, think of it only as a small (but very important) part of themselves.

At Campus Party, Colombia, about for days after posting this, I was having some pictures taken with the attendees. One of the attendees started yelling "He is gay. He is GAY." I quietly walked over, put my hand gently on his shoulder and said quietly "I am ever so much more than 'just' a gay man."

To the anonymous coward who talked about life choices and agenda. Its is not a choice and there is no agenda. I didn't see any attack against Christians in this blog post. What I did see was an attack against certain Christians. To me a Christian is someone who follows the words of Christ. I.e. "he who is without sin cast the first stone", "love your neighbor", "do unto others as you would do unto yourself" and "turn the other cheek".

Exactly.

I live in the UK, the home of Alan Turing. In this country male homosexuality only became legal in the late 60s. It took until the new millennium for transsexual people to be able to change the gender on their birth certificates. It is a requirement of that law that married couples have their marriages annulled because otherwise there would have been "gay marriages through the back door". Civil partnerships were introduced only for gay couples around the same time. However many countries do not recognize them.

Now they are finally talking about equal marriage. The two main opponents to this is the Anglican Church and the Mormons. Both of whom are arguing that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. These are the institutions that were created to allow Henry VIII divorce and to allow polygamy. Somewhat hypocritical wouldn't you say?

Throughout history marriage was never a function of the Church. It was a function of the state, to set up lines of inheritance, from the Egyptians to the Romans to the Royalty of Western Europe down through time. Today two consenting adults can get legally married in New Hampshire without the church, but the church can not perform a legal marriage ceremony without the state. In no state or country I know (unless it is a theocracy, where the Church *is* the state) can a Church legally marry someone without the state's permission. End of discussion.

So I am not anti-christian. I am anti hypocrisy and anti those who would use their religion to justify their own bigotries.

And again well done on your "coming out" in such an awesome post. And why am I interested in this. I am a trans-woman who transitioned almost 20 years ago. I am heavily involved in OSS. And I want to marry my girlfriend!

I am a Justice of the Peace in New Hampshire. I can perform that ceremony. We have no "waiting period" after getting the wedding license (which can be done in one day). I only charge five dollars to do the ceremony...and I normally give that back as a wedding present.

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In Honor of Alan Turning

Jon maddog Hall Jun 26, 2012 6:48am GMT

This is the best article - not one of the best - the best I have ever read. Congratulations. I don't know yet if one of my sons is gay but I will feel proud if they are and if they ever get hassled or feel down I will show this to them. Bravo. You have lived a life worth living and you are an inspiration.

Thank you

This is a NIT, but you should not be proud of your son because he is gay....you should be proud of your son because he is your son and he earns your pride (which I am sure he will and does).

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Where does sexuality ^W equality fit in with Linux?

Ravan Asteris Jun 26, 2012 5:18am GMT

Discrimination and abuse can rob the field of potentially some of its best and brightest. How much more could Turing have accomplished if he hadn't been persecuted? How many of those LGBT youth that have committed suicide due to the abuse of our society could have grown up to make profound contributions to the open source movement?

Yes, it matters, even in the sacred halls of geekdom. Disagree with me because you dislike/disagree with my code or approach, fine. Disagree with me because I'm female, a POC, disabled, trans, gay, bi or whatever? That's stupid and bigoted.

It is the teenage suicides that drive me to distraction. The kids have so much to live for....

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Linux and FOSS is a cause for freedom....but not a gay cause.

Anonymous. Jun 26, 2012 12:01am GMT

Ok....now everyone is gay and, like in the 80's, advocates about the gay cause.

But, please tell me, why every gay that advocates about their cause, have a need to attack other groups, like Christians, to explain your sex choice or life style ??

And don't forget.....Linux or FOSS, are not a gay cause, please don't turn this for your purposes....I respect your point of view, but, think that you're mixing this two causes.

As you can see from the responses here there were a lot of "geeks" that were touched by this blog post. At one time it had become one of the top five "trending" articles linked on Facebook. I was amazed. And I got a lot of private messages about this too....from people who thanked me and told me about their own sexuality.

The editors and publishers of this magazine and web-site have been very supportive, because they know I am not writing only about my homosexuality, nor even LGBT, but about all types of bigotry. Every type of bigotry makes me sick. If you have heard me speak, you would have known this fact.

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Russia

Alexander M. Batishchev Jun 25, 2012 10:05pm GMT

Thank your post, it's really great!

But please remove Russia from that list of the counties, it's 2012 now and you can be wrong, can't you? Yes, homosexuals are not accepted on the government level and no, homosexuals are indeed not declined on the society level, especially among younger generations. In what county have you seen that most of the older people were LGBT-friendly? Nowhere, not today, unfortunately. Hopefully, later.

Thank you again.

I have been to Russia five times. Four times to Moscow and once to St. Petersburg. I have always found the Russian people to be friendly and warm. I was happy when the Soviet Union fell and Russians could now start openly practicing their religions again.

So it pains me greatly to see articles like this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/12/st-petersburg-bans-homosexual-propaganda

Where it tells me that St. Petersburg is the fourth Russian city to adopt anti-day legislation, pushed by "politicians and Orthodox Church".

Likewise I have been to Africa (South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Oman, Kenya) and I have found the people to be outgoing and friendly, so it pains me to see maps like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory

were the brown spots indicate countries that I could BE PUT TO DEATH for acting on a basic human instinct. I do not know WHAT they would do to me if they found out I had a tattoo!

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thank you for all your contributions, including this one

John Jun 25, 2012 6:26pm GMT

While I am 100% supportive of you maddog in that this article reflects a person being true to himself with the desire of helping others, this article raises questions for me as to where the discussion of human sexuality belongs in the context of linux. I find myself asking: is this the correct place or even first place for this article, considering it was never something revealed to your parents?

My parents are dead. Nothing on this earth can hurt them. I hope they are with God. If so, he can explain my homosexuality to them.

I do indeed agree that it is indeed a good thing for young homosexuals to have role models and I do hope this helps in that respect. At the same time, is it a constructive element or a distraction to the core elements of the Linux community (applications, code, and the open source movement)? In a perfect world, these would be the only things we would need to discuss, but perhaps indeed this article needed to written and voiced in this imperfect one, especially upon reflection on the intolerance Turing faced during his own lifetime.

In general, I have found that in this community a person's genetic characteristics do not matter, but rather, the work they have done. I know you have thought long and hard and have struggled about how to voice this statement for the community and you acted courageously in doing so. So in this, as in all things, I respect everything you have done for every one of us, in the interest of our community. Thank you for this and for everything you have contributed!

I think you answered your own questions.

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If people still want to make comments on this blog entry, you can do that through my Facebook page (maddoghall) or regular email "maddog AT li DOT org" .

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