Let me tell you that for peasants like me

Some years ago, after a DrupalCon in the US, I received a direct message. It was kind of shocking and has been on my mind on and off ever since...

Let me tell you that for peasants like me.. People from India utterly saturate the IT world.
I work with contractors that do not employ any locals at all. There is a wildly diproportionate amount of foreigners in my field. This is obviously hurting my wages. I compete globally for income. Its exhausting. If you remain ignorant of this you are going to recieve some very negative results. This is not a kind of diversity that anybody should celebrate. This is hurting me directly.

There Is no lack of gay people at Drupalcon or in the IT field. I would argue that computer science is one of the most gay fields ever. Computer science was literally invented by a gay man, Alan Turing. My last manager was a gay man, I have known several gay people in the IT field. 

Where I am going with this?

Your last keynote at Drupalcon was based on the gayness of that person and not his credentials. You probably could have put a god of computer science up there. Just as gay/trans or whatever. The thing that put me off. If I were to put my sexuality on show as a white heterosexual in front of a bunch of people they would chop my head off and put it on a pike. If I told people I was “Hella Heterosexual” they would get pissed.

All the grammar errors are the author's, of course.

I can't even be bothered to comment on the author's rant about my DrupalCon keynote, mainly because I've never given one. I think he might be talking about the time I introduced a keynote. I dunno - some people just get a bit ranty if they hear LGBTQIA mentioned 🤷‍♀️

I will comment on the "people from India" and, I presume, other countries than the US:

Let me be absolutely clear, I will continue to do everything in my power to support and increase the visibility and influence of Drupal community members from lower and middle income countries around the world. They are the future of the project.

I genuinely couldn't care less if the author's wages are hurt by someone doing an equally good, or even better, job happens to live in a different country to him. Good on those other people getting the opportunities to show their value.

Whenever I have had the privilege to visit technical communities in places like India and Nigeria, I have been absolutely blown away, not just by the quality of the talent available but also by the active work that other projects and organisations are doing to connect to that talent. If Drupal does not do the same and connect strongly to these communities, it will be left behind.

We need to take action and change happens when you start at the top, not the bottom. Where are the representatives from LMICs on the Drupal Association Board? Where are they on the governance of the Drupal project, as described in maintainers.txt? Whilst there are Drupal Association Board elections on right now, this is not the way to do it - the board need to appoint people from every continent, not just half the board from the US, one from India, one from Australia, and a couple from Europe.