Resigning from OSDI

[Martha Grant]

Action Network will no longer be participating in OSDI, but we commit to maintaining interoperability with the tools of the progressive movement and doing what we can to strengthen that commitment throughout the movement. Please remove all references to us from the website and other materials, and remove me from all lists.

Martha

[Jeff Mann]

Please remove AFL-CIO as well.

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 9:30 AM, Martha Grant <mar...@actionnetwork.org> wrote:

Action Network will no longer be participating in OSDI, but we commit to maintaining interoperability with the tools of the progressive movement and doing what we can to strengthen that commitment throughout the movement. Please remove all references to us from the website and other materials, and remove me from all lists.

Martha

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Jeff Mann

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[Beth Becker]

Me as well please

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Beth Becker
Becker Digital Strategies
@Spedwybabs

202-642-2675

[Walter Ludwig]

Ditto Indigo

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 12:28 Beth Becker <progres...@gmail.com> wrote:

Me as well please

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 12:24 PM, Jeff Mann <jm...@aflcio.org> wrote:

Please remove AFL-CIO as well.

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 9:30 AM, Martha Grant <mar...@actionnetwork.org> wrote:

Action Network will no longer be participating in OSDI, but we commit to maintaining interoperability with the tools of the progressive movement and doing what we can to strengthen that commitment throughout the movement. Please remove all references to us from the website and other materials, and remove me from all lists.

Martha

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Dont forget to Watch our github repo: https://github.com/opensupporter/osdi-docs
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Jeff Mann

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Beth Becker
Becker Digital Strategies
@Spedwybabs

202-642-2675

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---- Walter Ludwig Managing Partner Indigo Strategies www.indigostrategies.com

[Dave Leichtman (CELA)]

Microsoft would also like to be removed from the Industry Tech group.

[Augustus Franklin]

I wish people would also state their reasons and have some discussion around this. We, at CallHub, spent significant time and resources implementing the interfaces for interop with the many organisations in this group. It is shame to see all that effort go to waste. Lack of discussion around this also leaves me with a very bad taste of working with US based progressive organisations.

Augustus

On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 12:03 AM, Dheeraj Chand <dheera...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think that it's quite possible for these conversations to happen addressed directly to the leadership without the further humiliation of letting everyone know that you are resigning.

On Feb 20, 2018, at 11:40 AM, Walter Ludwig <wal...@indigostrategies.com> wrote:

Ditto Indigo

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 12:28 Beth Becker <progres...@gmail.com> wrote:

Me as well please

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 12:24 PM, Jeff Mann <jm...@aflcio.org> wrote:

Please remove AFL-CIO as well.

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 9:30 AM, Martha Grant <mar...@actionnetwork.org> wrote:

Action Network will no longer be participating in OSDI, but we commit to maintaining interoperability with the tools of the progressive movement and doing what we can to strengthen that commitment throughout the movement. Please remove all references to us from the website and other materials, and remove me from all lists.

Martha

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Jeff Mann

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(o) 202.637.5170   (c) 248.835.9487

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Beth Becker
Becker Digital Strategies
@Spedwybabs

202-642-2675

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---- Walter Ludwig Managing Partner Indigo Strategies www.indigostrategies.com

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[Josh Cohen]

All voices have a right to be heard in the public dialogue on sexual misconduct. As a gay, anti-discrimination activist, and victim of abuse, I strongly support the #MeToo movement, but I fervently denounce those who choose to selectively silence some of us with a story to tell.

My actions in this struggle are solely to see that gay and Lesbian victims of sexual misconduct have a voice and are protected with the equal vigilance. 

This issue has been systematically swept under the rug by the community. In 2018 it is simply unacceptable to engage in this kind of discrimination. 

I ask that progressive organizations first take the time to understand the full picture and engage in a dialog to balance the needs of all, not just heterosexuals. 

I have not responded publicly because I do not believe their is any value in a straight woman and gay male (two demographics that are the least of each other's problems) muddy ing up each other for the benefit of our shared adversary of the bigoted subset of straight males.  

What do people think is the best way to do that?  

Sent from my iPhone

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[Joe Murray]

I don't have any sense of what is prompting others to resign apart from the messages posted today. But I've only attended a few meetings and don't feel like I am participating at a level that makes sense to remain a member. I wish everyone well. But please accept my resignation.

All the best. 

Joe Murray, PhD
President, JMA Consulting
joe.m...@jmaconsulting.biz
skype JosephPMurray twitter JoeMurray
416.466.1281

[Mark Paquette]

I agree that people should state their reasons if they are resigning publicly like this.  We have invested significant resources in OSDI and are not going to let unrelated issues dissuade us from supporting the platform.  After hearing that the Russian bots helped take down Al Franken, I am very leery of joining any stampede.  OSDI makes a tremendous amount of sense as a progressive tool, unless we fail to use and support it.

Mark Paquette

Co-founder & CTO
thedatabank, gbc.

Direct line: 612-455-3502

ma...@thedatabank.com

www.thedatabank.com

[jos...@gmail.com]

I’ve recused myself as chair.

 

I would ask that people not destroy the community asset that is critical to lowering the costs, and creating the possibility of the kind of adventuresome integration of products from different vendors previously limited to large organizations and campaigns for those of marginalized communities.  At the current time, this asset is in the capable hands of Sonya Reynolds, and I ask that you support her at least giving her the chance to navigate the organization through this.

 

Speaking on behalf of myself, I’m disappointed to see that backroom arm-twisting is the tool of choice in a democratic organization, and I think it says a lot about what is really going on here.  I will now explain the history of this blue-on-blue incident and how it escalated to the unpleasant situation of litigation.  I’m saying it here, because I’d like to avoid openly criticizing a straight women in public, if that can be avoided.

 

In a separate struggle that has nothing to do with OSDI,  there is a legitimate issue of discrimination against the LGBT community.  As it is often the case, expressing ourselves or fighting for inclusion or our right not to be discriminated against, these just actions are spun as an attack on heterosexuals via poor use of the impact lens.   (This runs the gamut of severity with the most lethal being “Gay Panic!” or “Trans Panic!” defenses when gay people like Matthew Shephard are tied to fences, pistol whipped and left for dead, or others face a similar fate.)

 

In this case, the misuse of the impact lens began with a singular email argument which occurred in September 2016, after a conference session at Netroots Nation 2016 on the topic of sexual misconduct within the progressive community, where the session leaders stated that all cases of sexual misconduct, not just women would be addressed.  During that email argument I pushed back on the use of power to discriminate by excluding any non-women from any meaningful voice in conference sessions or community discussions on sexual misconduct. This point was in contradiction to what was said at the preceding session.  

 

In November 2016 at RootsCamp, I then sought to resolve this with dialog and sought to mend fences and make sure that it was understood that my focus was on same-sex abusers and misconduct with no interest in controlling women or meddling in the heterosexual situation.  But before I could say a word Robyn Swirling then characterized that singular argument in an announcement to a room full of conference attendees that I was guilty of “Repeated violence and persistent harassment against women”, which created a panicked mob and an assault upon me, and led Wellstone to exclude me from the remainder of the conference and close an expo booth.

 

If you read her attacks on twitter, you’ll see that someone who is an experienced digital organizer and trainer of others in narrative building has carefully airbrushed out my sexual orientation, mission to deal with same-sex sexual misconduct, and accomplishments in the fight against bigotry.  She effectively adds my name to a list with Trevor FitzGibbon and Harvey Weinstein.  This is the same pattern that has been going on since the first attack in November 2016.

 

There is simply no way around it, these are dishonest and defamatory accusations which can be lethally harmful.

 

Let’s be also honest with ourselves here, that kind of conviction will compromise one’s ability to earn a living wage, and after any savings are depleted, it is effectively a death sentence.   The closure of an expo booth was in itself a significant financial harm, and is the first example of a pattern of tortious interference.

 

After this first attack in November 2016, Jason Rosenbaum, bless his heart, attempted to serve as an intermediary to broker peace, which I agreed to and agreed not to defend myself.  Unfortunately, Robyn immediately betrayed that agreement with more attacks.

 

Shortly after Rootscamp, Jason also initiated an escalation within OSDI, at which point the OSDI officers and a subset of the governance board reviewed the email argument with Robyn, the broader situation, as well as details of my own sexual misconduct situation.  After applying due process and due diligence where the facts were considered, no other actions were recommended by those involved.

 

Though I’ve been running away from Robyn ever since, her attacks have continued and escalated, and with the gay males being a much smaller and weaker demographic in our community than straight women, conference leaders have tacitly supported these attacks and taken a similarly discriminatory position, once again at Netroots Nation 207.

 

This is extremely harmful to the LGBT community because it props up the status quo of power balances enabling sexual misconduct, and worse, sent a signal to abusers in our community that they have free reign to continue. And in my case, predictably resulted in a continuation of intimidation from my own abuser, and a military friend of his.  My decision to escalate the situation is not frivolous, and this intimidation has been communicated to law enforcement.

 

I have made multiple attempts to engage the conference leaders at Wellstone and Netroots Nation in dialog to address the discriminatory harm and limit the harms of these repeated defamatory attacks.  Unfortunately there response has been to stand by discrimination, cover their tracks, and refuse any meaningful dialog.

 

If I am guilty of any misdeed, it is merely a singular incident of some overheated protest in a justified endeavor. This is not a capital crime, but that is the punishment Robyn is inflicting on me.

 

After Netroots Nation, it became clear that if I am to save my own life, I needed to act.  Even as we proceeded down the path of litigation, another invitation for dialog was put on the table with conference leaders at Netroots Nation and Wellstone.  Though we filed the suit to meet statute of limitation deadlines, we did not serve Robyn, effectively holding it in stasis while we made the invitation.

 

As part of the legal process, before the new year, litigation hold letters were sent to Netroots Nation and Wellstone, which communicate the need to preserve any electronic communications or other evidence that may need to be produced during discovery, or in response to subpoenas.  I instructed my legal counsel to include language in those inviting the recipients to join us in a dialog to resolve the situation as an alternative to proceeding further down the path towards litigation.

 

We waited roughly a month, with no reply.  Only after that did we serve Robyn, on or about January 25.

 

As such, I believe I made more than reasonable attempts both with Robyn and conference leaders to resolve this with the reasoned dialog. But the community as a whole is simply not willing to concern itself with the well-being of same sex victims of sexual misconduct, and has tacitly continued to support Robyn’s lethally harmful attacks. To the heterosexuals who control our world, I claim that this is an unacceptable abuse of power.

 

OSDI’s heritage comes from the blood and sweat of the LGBT struggle for equality, and in in effect, is a contribution from the LGBT community to the broader progressive community. While it’s ridiculous that in 2018 one must justify the need for anti-discrimination, to see that in this organization is heartbreaking on a personal level.

 

The invitation for the relevant parties and the community to come together to address this discriminatory behavior and find a balance that preserves the voice and well-being of all victims of sexual misconduct is still on the table as an alternative to the litigation path.

 

I don’t like the idea that I needed to be the jerk who presses the LAWSUIT button, I can think of many other ways I’d prefer to spend money than this, and certainly not against a straight woman of all people, in what I see as a blue-on-blue conflict that has spun out of control. 

 

But at the end of the day, if the community is going to fail to protect our well-being, then I  don’t see any credible argument against the victim of these harms doing what they need to do in self-defense.  This collective response is victim blaming and punishing the victim to sweep the gay perspective under the rug. 

 

My accomplishments in the fight against bigotry and my commitment to the broader progressive community in time, money, and activism are on the table for anyone to see, and know that it is my true mission.  Robyn’s misdiagnosis of the situation projects an intent on to me, which implies that I’ve gone berserk and wish to protect those who are the biggest perpetrators of bigotry to the LGBT community since misogyny and homophobia are correlated on the axis of masculinity.  I just don’t see how responding to misbehavior in an email argument by destroying a gay male who’s between a bystander and an intersectional ally to women advances their cause.

 

That said, I will continue to protect the rights and well-being of the LGBT community, as well as my own, and if it needs to be in a courtroom, or in public, so be it.

 

 

 

 

From: osdi-go...@googlegroups.com [mailto:osdi-go...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Paquette
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 3:10 PM
To: joe.m...@jmaconsulting.biz
Cc: Beth Becker <progres...@gmail.com>; Jeff Mann <jm...@aflcio.org>; Martha Grant <mar...@actionnetwork.org>; osdi-go...@googlegroups.com; osdi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [osdi-gov] Re: [osdi] Resigning from OSDI

 

I agree that people should state their reasons if they are resigning publicly like this.  We have invested significant resources in OSDI and are not going to let unrelated issues dissuade us from supporting the platform.  After hearing that the Russian bots helped take down Al Franken, I am very leery of joining any stampede.  OSDI makes a tremendous amount of sense as a progressive tool, unless we fail to use and support it.

Me as well please

 

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Jeff Mann

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jma...@aflcio.org

(o) 202.637.5170   (c) 248.835.9487

 

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Beth Becker
Becker Digital Strategies
@Spedwybabs

202-642-2675

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GDrive folder with minutes etc https://drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B6oFFHdcxd4eLVZmUzUyUUdkRzA
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[Sonya]

Apologies for the apparent radio silence, bad week to be on vacation. 

For those that resigned on this thread, or others that are concerned or confused, please reach out to me if you would like to talk about what is needed to maintain your commitment to the work. My current plan is to collect this input from the coalition of the willing (anonymously/confidentially) and use it to guide a collective discussion a path forward that doesn’t jeopardize organizations or this important work. Open to hearing everyone’s thoughts so our next steps can be productive in making it through this period. 

In solidarity,

Sonya

[GNB GNB]

Bravo Sonya! Thank you for your leadership and offer on this. 

Gayatri N. Bhalla

[Dheeraj Chand]

Is there a publicly shareable version of Josh's regignation comments and explanations that we can share amongst networks enquiring about the events at OSDI?

Dheeraj

[Shai Sachs]

After due consideration, NGP VAN has decided to leave OSDI. Drew Miller and I are both resigning our leadership positions on Governance and Exec respectively, and would like references to NGP VAN’s participation to be removed from the website. Thanks,

 

 

SHAI SACHS

Innovation Platform Director, NGP VAN

P. 617.718.2980 x 6077 | @shaisachs

 

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