Posted by megansanicki on

Drupal Association

We understand that there is uncertainty and concern in the Drupal community about project founder, Dries Buytaert, asking Larry Garfield to leave the Drupal community, and about the Drupal Association removing Larry's DrupalCon sessions and ending his term as track chair.

We want to be clear that the decision to remove Larry's DrupalCon session and track chair role was not because of his private life or personal beliefs. The Drupal Association stands by our values of inclusivity. Our decision was based on confidential information conveyed in private by many sources. Due to the confidential nature of the situation we cannot and will not disclose any information that may harm any members of our community, including Larry.

This decision followed our established process. As the Executive Director, charged with safekeeping the goodwill of the organization, I made this decision after considering input from various sources including the Community Working Group (CWG) and Drupal Project Lead, Dries Buytaert. Upon Larry’s request for an appeal, the full board reviewed the situation, all the evidence, and statements provided by Larry. After reviewing the entirety of the information available (including information not in the public view) the decision was upheld.

In order to protect everyone involved we cannot comment more, and trust that the community will be understanding.  

We do see that there are many feelings and questions around this DrupalCon decision and we empathize with those community members. We will continue to monitor comments. We are listening.

Comments

davidhernandez’s picture

davidhernandez commented

What people find really confusing is the CWG indicated they found no CoC violations. Did the DA receive evidence/complaints that the CWG did not?

rj’s picture

rj commented

Correct, according to the CWG, “the CWG did not find any evidence that Larry had violated the Drupal Code of Conduct”. 

--rj

rj’s picture

rj commented

Hi Megan, here's what I've gathered of the situation so far, in order:

  1. <gossip gossip guess what about Larry>
  2. Dries removes him from the project
  3. Megan (you) removes his session and track chair seat
  4. There was a "full board review" of the situation.
  5. After the review the decision was upheld.

My questions:

  • Did the board vote on removing Larry before you and Dries removed him?
  • Was there a vote after the "full board review"?
  • Please describe how votes were cast and tallied each time there was a vote. I'm interested in how many votes were actually/physically cast vs. how many voted by proxy/automatic approval/absent/absentee/etc....

Thanks. 

--rj

rj’s picture

rj commented

[please disregard this comment, I edited this comment into my first comment and don't have the permissions to delete it]

--rj

DHW’s picture

DHW commented

All the evidence and even the nature of the crime is secret (to "protect everybody involved," except for the defendant, apparently, who has had his name and reputation dragged through the mud) and we're just supposed to believe you? Sorry, you're going to have to do better than that.

bonked’s picture

bonked commented

Don't worry, they held secret court to convict him of secret crimes - that strengthens trust and understanding in the community. Anything less would be double plus ungood.

---
"If you are thinking, you are winning. Resistance is victory"

cweagans’s picture

cweagans commented

You're removing him from public involvement in the project for information not publicly available? Almost seems like it wouldn't impact the community at all - you know, with it not being publicly available.

This is ridiculous.

---
http://cweagans.net

xjm’s picture

xjm commented

Please, for those commenting, consider that there are others involved whose privacy should be protected, as well as Larry's privacy for that matter. Larry (bravely) chose to share a lot of information personally, but it's also a one-sided picture.

Please respect people's privacy. This community has always been caring about respecting my privacy; please extend that courtesy to others who are impacted that you or we are not aware of.

Donnyboypony’s picture

Donnyboypony commented

This was handled so poorly by Drupal leadership that it's disgusting. I don't want to be part of a community where a man's private life can be paraded into the spotlight against his will. As stated in Dries' post, you most certainly have asked Larry to leave because of his personal/private beliefs. We as a community need confirmation that Larry acted inappropriately if this is to stand.

Women and others that live alternative lifestyles are commenting in support of Larry anonymously because they are afraid of you. We cannot foster and support this kind of fear. So far, the only thing we know is that you don't like what he does in the bedroom and that's not ok. The people who cyber stalked Larry have committed a far worse offence and frankly scare me. Today, I'm ashamed to be a Drupaler.

I will not be contributing patches until the matter is settled.