Do open and closed mean the same thing?

11 January 2009 (13)
Photo owned by Martin Pettitt (cc)

Interesting fluffy link and discussion over at Damien’s gaff last week on the Galas. The Galas are awards organised by the NLGF. Blurb:

The GALAS are Ireland’s first annual awards celebrating contributions to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) life in Ireland.

Awards ranging from Most Gay-Friendly Politician of the Year to Blogger of the Year. How does one judge politicians for Gay Friendliness? Hug a homo?

The Galas are quite pointedly not for heterosexuals.  While there’s nothing on the site saying this, if I nominated a straight blogger how far would they get?

In the same kind of way, the Open Source community has  jumped on that sort of thinking. There are always calls to recognise Open Source projects in separate little boxes to ensure they get recognised. This has nothing to do with where I work, before I get the screaming comments. If we need to consider projects, people or anything else in this life with tags, then are we really be fair? Are we judging things on their merits?

Any piece of code or person deserves to be judged on what they do. Our actions define us. The wiring of our sexualities or whether we’re licensed under Apache does not. We ought not to be introduced with excuses or silly footnotes.

If sexuality be the barrier, you really do have to wonder just who is the one discriminating? And if we limit ourselves to small pools, where’s the equality? Similarly, the whole women in tech tag is a load of shit.

January 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm • Filed in Brainstrobing



Comments

5 Comments to “Do open and closed mean the same thing?”

  1. Jonathan Day Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    You are so right, I feel that by having separate ceremonies and the like the homosexual world is either saying that they’re not good enough for the heterosexual one or worse saying that they’re better. Regardless, it’s these kind of things that will make sure that equality for sexuality will never truly come true.



  2. Joe Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 1:24 am

    I think it’s good that there is a GALAS event. I’m reminded of why the blog awards exist – not for profit, not for someone’s popularity, but a genuine desire to promote, develop and strengthen a community.

    Obviously, if you are not part of the community, you may feel left out. One of the first arguments is – why can’t we all be treated equally?

    If this were to be applied to the Irish Blog Awards – why do we have Irish Blog Awards? Why don’t we just have media awards to cover all media – TV/newspaper/magazines/Internet etc. Why are they Irish awards and not international? Why are there even subcategories in the IBAs? Why are newcomers given special treatment?

    Exactly because you want to encourage something or someone new and recognise their contribution within the community and the bravery or effort shown by them.

    Likewise, OSS events are good for encouraging, sustaining and developing that community and it keeps some companies on their toes ;)



  3. Alexia Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 8:04 am

    Joe, the GALAs is about difference. There is no sexuality check at the figurative door of the IBAs. There’s no barrier. That’s a fundamental difference.

    An event that promotes difference and discriminates based on sexuality is somehow encouraging? Encouraging what – more difference? More discrimination?

    Obviously, if you are not part of the community, you may feel left out.

    That’s not the case. Not at issue. Why should my sexuality be issue here anyway? It doesn’t matter if I’m gay, straight or just confused. It’s not at issue here, at the IBAs but somehow at the GALAs it would be.

    Also, comparing a barrier to entry based on sexuality discrimination to the categorization of blogs for judging is highly idiotic. Dear God.

    Discrimination never bred an inclusive society.



  4. Alexia Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    And let me qualify my comment. By “barrier to entry” I do not mean ban from attending. Hanging onto this as a foothold is obfuscating the issue.



  5. Joe Says:
    February 16th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    I think it is a misconception that the whole event is designed to exclude any group, especially straight people. I expect to see many supporters of the gay community that aren’t gay there, in particular journalists, politicians, bloggers (hopefully), people in the community sector and friends of gays.

    In the “about the galas” page they have clearly stated:
    “The awards are also to honour politicians, employers and other people who are committed to advancing equality and social acceptance for LGBT Irish people in Ireland”

    imho the best queer blogger award could well go to someone who isn’t gay but who blogs about queer topics. I would even think it silly to give the best blog award to someone who is very good about blogging about and who happens to be a queer. It’s not about who you have sex with, but rather, have you inspired the LGBT community or contributed somehow.

    Aside: this has me dwelling on the justification for the gay games too

    Take a look at the list of Gay Icons on the GCN site and you’ll see that it isn’t as homogeneous as you might expect. I had to google why Maire Geoghegan-Quinn made it on. Apparently she “piloted through the Oireachtas the decriminalisation of homosexuality”
    http://www.gcn.ie/icons.aspx

    Even if it is heavily populated with politicians and celebrities, I look forward to seeing a blog from the mother of a gay kid or something. These are the types of people who interact with the gay community and help to organise events and run the support lines on a voluntary basis. Remember the interview on the Late Late Show with Margaret Gill? That in itself was inspiring. http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/20080328.html

    As I asked on twitter – what do you suggest should be changed about these awards?



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