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Poll: Sexual orientation

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Sexual orientation

#21

Post by chimeracoder »

[deleted] wrote: post #13

[deleted]

> There were as many gay men in many of my CS classes as there were women. I have no idea what (if anything) this tells us about gender and sexuality in tech...

My experience has been the same; I've always found it amusing.

> I've also wondered if it's just a coincidence that the US's tech center is also a historically gay-friendly place. I think it probably is just a coincidence.

I think it is largely coincidence. The reasons that SV is a tech center are completely independent of the reasons that SF is a gay mecca (and both have pretty traceable causes).

Furthermore, I have a lot of gay friends in SF, and I have a lot of tech friends in SF, but the intersection between those two circles is very small - not only do I not have many gay tech friends in SF, but my gay friends in the Bay Area are very disconnected from tech circles (or at least, as much as you can be in the Bay Area).

Despite this, I know there are a number of gay engineers; in an attempt to connect this community, a friend and I started an NYC meetup for LGBT engineers: http://www.meetup.com/Identity-Hackers/ (yes, shameless plug!)

Re: Poll: Sexual orientation

#24

Post by ritchiea »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #18
ritchiea wrote: post #2

When is the race/ethnicity poll?

To me, it's a curiosity, partly because I'm a gay guy and partly because sexual orientation isn't something that's outwardly obvious. The anonymity of an internet poll is the perfect place to find out. I know we could poll the hell out of the community and drill down to all kinds of details, but the one thing I've never, ever heard anybody discuss is the distribution of sexual orientations in tech, or at least as is…

It's actually interesting to hear that you're serious. After the backlash against the gender poll I instinctively thought your poll was snark directed at the original poll e.g. "You think asking your gender is intrusive? Well how about I ask about your sexual orientation?"

Re: Poll: Sexual orientation

#26

Post by malodyets »

anExcitedBeast wrote: post #17
logn wrote: post #5

Missing options: Other - Gay Other - Bisexual Other - Straight Other - Unknown

Maybe this makes me a terrible person, but "other" tells us nothing and seems to completely dodge the question.

Except that some of other stripe prefer "other" to having to choose between male and female, and it respects them to provide that option.

Re: Poll: Sexual orientation

#27

Post by stratosvoukel »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #22
stratosvoukel wrote: post #7

Male/Female only? You should at least include queer I guess as a catch all for other sexualities as well.

I have now; I included "other". Sorry I didn't include it at first -- I should have known better!

GREAT initiative! Thanks!

Re: Poll: Sexual orientation

#28

Post by anxx »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #18
ritchiea wrote: post #2

When is the race/ethnicity poll?

To me, it's a curiosity, partly because I'm a gay guy and partly because sexual orientation isn't something that's outwardly obvious. The anonymity of an internet poll is the perfect place to find out. I know we could poll the hell out of the community and drill down to all kinds of details, but the one thing I've never, ever heard anybody discuss is the distribution of sexual orientations in tech, or at least as is…

that is true, i also wonder about this. thanks for making the poll.
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