If you work in tech, wired is new main story It’s not really going to shatter your worldview, but it’s still a really great read.
Reporter Zoë Bernard spent months talking to 51 people (31 of them gay men) to explore a subculture that’s been an open secret in Silicon Valley for years: gay men in the upper echelons of tech, quietly pitching up their own networks, the way powerful people always do.
Some quotes are very remarkable. One angel investor puts it bluntly: “Lesbians working in tech are becoming increasingly successful… They support each other, whether it’s hiring someone or having angels invest in their companies or leading their funding rounds.” Another source puts it almost philosophically: “Straight people have golf courses. Gay people have orgies. That doesn’t mean it’s problematic. It’s a way we connect and connect.”
This piece does not allow the culture to die out completely. As is true wherever power dynamics exist, the nine gay men interviewed described experiencing unwanted advances from their senior colleagues – and Bernard does not shy away from examining where networking ends and coercion begins. But their sources are cautious about what it means: “It’s a complex topic and I don’t think readers can distinguish between some bad men being gay and all gay men being bad. It could be a slippery slope toward homophobia.”
