Who?

GitHub: Larry Garfield

Project: Drupal

Date: 03/27/2017

Why?

In an fairly long and detailed blog post, Larry talks about the situation that had been unfolding in the Drupal Community at the time. First, he catches us up as to what was happening:

The Community Working Groups (CWG) fielded a number of reports in October/November about stuff I had posted on a private forum outside of Drupal.

People had found out many private things regarding Larry’s private life, including his dating profile and reported it to the CWG. According to him, they had not found him in violation of the Drupal Code of Conduct. Regardless of this, he was contacted by Drupal founder and project leader, Dries Buytaert, who said:

Dries’ first communication with me was at the end of February, in which he was very clear he had already made up his mind that I needed to leave Drupal, and he first asked, then instructed, me to do so.

Another high ranking member of the Drupal Community, Megan Sanicki had also reached out to Larry, letting him that he lost both his position and speakership at community events.

The first and only contact I had from her was 3 days after I first spoke to Dries, informing me that “per [my] conversation with Dries” I had been removed as a track chair and speaker for DrupalCon Baltimore.

Without going into a ton of detail, Larry had basically been accused of a misogynist among a number of other things because of how people interpreted his personal beliefs. Which led him to basically out himself, and his beliefs in order to better explain them than let people’s assumptions run rampant.

According to him, many members of the community were shocked by the leadership’s decision.

Based on the messages and tweets I’ve gotten, most of the community is just as horrified at this situation as I am.

He ended this post by saying:

To those who have reached out to me in public or in private to offer their support and to say “be well”, I thank you. Be well, Drupal.