The Perl community is a great group of people. chromatic and Andy Lester don't think so because they limit their involvement to the most toxic things man has ever created: the mailing list thread and website comments. There's nothing surprising about bad behavior in either of those places and it has nothing to do with Perl. It happens everywhere you find a mailing list or a comment section.

Show up to a Perl event with real people and you'll find a much different reality. :)