Re: Debian supports pridemonth?
On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 12:29:55PM +0200, Jonathan Carter wrote:
> On 2019/06/28 11:48, Gerardo Ballabio wrote:
> > I do not think that this is appropriate. Welcoming diversity is one
> > thing, supporting pridemonth is another thing. Pridemonth is a set of
> > events with a definite political connotation. I don't think that
> > Debian should take sides on any specific political issues (except of
> > course issues that have a relation to free software), especially if
> > that hasn't been discussed at large among project members and there
> > isn't a clear consensus.
> >
I personally think that a public statement such as this should at least
have been discussed among the project members prior to being made
public.
> > Is it just me (and am I being blatantly wrong, if so please enlighten
> > me) or do others share my concern?
>
> Probably a bit of a stretch to call it political.
In other discussions Russ Allbery has articulated the entanglement
between Debian's objectives as a project and "politics" in various forms
(i.e., is Debian and/or free software inherently political?). He did a
far better job explaining it than I ever could so I will not try to
replicate the discussion here, but my recollection is that he concluded
that in some ways being political cannot be avoided.
> As far as I
> understand, all that it's about is a shared stance against bigotry and
> letting people know that it's ok to be different and that we accept
> people from a wide variety of walks of life. Seems in line with our
> current policies so I don't really see much of an issue there.
>
I understand it to be generally the same as well.
Looking at the history of vote.debian.org there have been GRs for far
less consequential matters. To say that this one did not at least merit
a "by the way fellow Debian community members, next week the project
plans to announce blah blah blah" is perhaps not consistent with the
principle and goal of transparency that we uphold.
If this really is such a minor issue, I would like to offer some
suggestions for ways in which we can further strengthen our "shared
stance against bigotry and letting people know that it's ok to be
different and that we accept people from a wide variety of walks of
life."
Hispanic Heritage Month is coming in a few months (at least in the US,
not sure about international observances). Perhaps Debian could make a
public show of support for those of Hispanic origin (who tend to be
drastically underrepresented in the community). We already missed Black
Heritage Month this year in the US, but it is coming in October for
Europe and will come round again in February in the US. Blacks, or
African-Americans, are similarly underrepresented in the community.
Perhaps we could also show support for Jews and those of Jewish origin
during one of the principal festivals (Passover, Weeks, or Tabernacles).
In addition to being underrepresensted, all of those groups have at
times in history experienced bigotry and persecution comparable to (if
not exceeding) that which became the genesis of pride observances within
the LGBT community.
> Debian isn't aligning itself with any specific political movement here
> so I think in that context, it's really a non-issue. Even if it were,
> there are going to be places where you're going to have to pick sides
> when protecting basic freedoms become political. This one is very
> uncomplicated though.
>
Agreed. This is as uncomplicated as the suggestions I made above for
Debian to show solidarity with similarly affected groups. I hope that
we can do that with the same enthusiasm as in this instance. There are
sure to be other groups which I have overlooked and hope that additional
suggestions are forthcoming from others.
Regards,
-Roberto
--
Roberto C. Sánchez
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