Female tech jobseekers are furious that men claiming to be ‘nonbinary’ crashed their conference
Heather Hunter
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A tech conference meant to be the largest gathering of female technologists faced backlash when biological men identifying as “nonbinary” were seen attending the event.
“This is a space for women and tech. It’s one of those few limited resources that isn’t for you. It’s for us,” a frustrated female conference attendee complained on social media.
https://twitter.com/rottengirl/status/1709195019792318622
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The Grace Hopper Celebration is an annual conference and career fair organized by AnitaB. The Sept. 26 to 29 job fair was planned to help women seeking careers in STEM fields meet with job recruiters in Orlando, Florida. Some prices for the event cost upwards of $1,300 a ticket.
AnitaB’s Chief Impact Officer Cullen White, whose LinkedIn pronouns identify as “He/Him,” raged from onstage at the conference about the audacity of “cisgender men” attending the conference.
“Yesterday, it became clear that there are a far greater number of cisgender men attending than we anticipated,” White said.
“Simply put, some of you lied when you registered. And as evidenced by the stacks and stacks of resumes you’re passing out, you did so because you thought you could come here and take space to try and get a job. We need male allies; we need men who want to celebrate women, work with and for women. So, we welcome men in this space — to learn and support and improve.”
One social media user responded to his organization’s post, “Hey, Cullen White: You couldn’t find a woman to address this issue on stage?”
“Imagine a cis white male telling non-binary people they aren’t non-binary. Bigot,” another person wrote on social media.
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“Why is the cis man mansplaining to the cisman about a cis women’s problem?” another commenter said.
Prior to joining AnitaB.org, Cullen had worked as managing director of computer Science for Teach For America and as supervisor of information technology programs for Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland.