Violet Blue banned from speaking at BSidesSF by Ada Initiative

I was working at BSidesLV last year when she gave a similar version of this talk. It was not offensive to women, although it was adult content (it explicitly was about drugs and sex, from the context of harm reduction; if anything, it was somewhat feminist in that it warned against risks and tried to empower everyone).

I agree with getting rid of harassment at conventions, but censorship is itself a form of harassment. I'm glad Violent Blue took it well, but if I were an attendee, I would have been pissed to have talks censored for bogus reasons.

Maybe Ada Initiative isn't the right way for conferences to keep the conference free and open to all discussion.

The BSides goal is to expand the spectrum of conversation beyond the traditional confines of space and time.

Sex and drugs are a part of modern life and have risks, security, and safety issues which community members need to know. Better to know the facts than pretend the issues do not exist. I think cancellation of Violet Blue's talk was unfortunate.

This title is unfounded drama. If you want some clue, you can read:

http://www.securitybsides.com/w/page/35868077/BSidesSanFranc...

http://adainitiative.org/2013/02/keeping-it-on-topic-the-pro...

He said. She said.

http://violetblue.tumblr.com/post/44107008572/what-happened-...

Lobbying to have a talk canceled, sounds like classic bullying to me.

That's an incredibly misleading title based on what the conference's post about the topic actually says. It sounds like the conference organizers asked to cancel the talk after feedback from the Ada Initiative and discussion with Violet Blue.

This doesn't really make any sense..