If you work in tech, Wired’s new cover story won’t exactly destroy your worldview, but it’s still a really great read.
Reporter Zoë Bernard spent months interviewing 51 people (31 of them gay) to map a subculture that’s been an open secret in Silicon Valley for years: gay people at the highest levels of technology are quietly creating their own networks, the way powerful people always have.
One angel investor puts it plainly: “Gay people who work in tech are hugely successful… they support each other, whether it’s getting someone to hire, or angel investing in their companies, or leading their funding rounds.” Another source frames it almost philosophically: “Straight guys have golf courses. Gay guys have orgies. It doesn’t mean it’s problematic. It’s how we connect and connect.”
The piece does not completely let culture off the hook. As is true wherever power dynamics exist, nine of the gay men interviewed describe experiencing unwanted advances from older colleagues—and Bernard doesn’t shy away from exploring where networking ends and coercion begins. But her sources are wary of what that means: “This is a complicated subject and I don’t think readers can distinguish between some bad men who are gay and all gay men who are bad. It can lead to homophobia.”