Code of Conduct
Queer in AI is dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone who participates in our community and do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. This code of conduct applies to all Queer in AI spaces, including conferences, events, Twitter, Slack, mailing lists, both online and offline. Any person who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the Queer in AI Safety Team.
The experiences of LGBTQIA+ people are at the center of Queer in AI activities. Our goal is to forge a community of queer people in a field where we have been underrepresented or invisible, celebrate the work of queer researchers, and to raise awareness of issues in the AI community that affect queer people. We recognize that queer identities are multifaceted and intersectional.
We ask participants in Queer in AI spaces to:
Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions.
Listen as much as you speak.
Make an effort to understand and learn from people who come from different contexts.
Avoid making assumptions.
Attempt collaboration before conflict.
Presume that everyone’s ideas, skills, and contributions have value.
Prioritize input from those who have been marginalized in AI spaces.
Allyship
You do not have to be queer to participate in the Queer in AI community. We welcome allies and believe that our work is more powerful in collaboration. For both queer and ally participants, we ask you to reflect on your social standing with respect to gender, race, class, disability, language, physical appearance, and others, and to be an ally to those who are more marginalized than you.
We ask you to engage in these practices as an active ally:
Acknowledge your privilege.
Listen and learn, even when you feel confused or uncomfortable.
Embrace criticism and emotional discomfort that come from the process of allyship.
Educate yourself before asking others to educate you. Recognize the time and effort contributed by those who help you learn.
Use your privilege to educate people in your other communities.
Support, elevate, amplify, and advocate for marginalized people.
Ensure that ideas originated by marginalized people are credited to them.
Contribute resources (time, money, visibility, opportunity).
Anti-harassment policy
Queer in AI is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurodivergence, skill set, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, age, nationality, citizenship status, colonial experience, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of anyone. Some Queer in AI spaces may have additional rules in place, which will be made clearly available to participants. Participants in these spaces are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
Offensive comments related to gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurodivergence, skill set, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, age, nationality, citizenship status, colonial experience, or religion.
Unwelcome comments regarding a person's lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
Deliberate misgendering or use of 'dead' or rejected names.
Persistent intentional misgendering after pronouns are communicated.
Gender binarism or biological essentialism.
Deliberate "outing" of any aspect of a person's identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
Gratuitous, graphic, or off-topic sexual images or behavior.
Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like "hug" or "backrub") without consent or after a request to stop.
Threats of violence.
Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
Deliberate intimidation.
Dismissive or demeaning verbal, written, or pictorial communication.
Stalking or following.
Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
Sustained disruption of discussion, talks, or other events and behavior that interferes with another's full participation.
Unwelcome sexual attention.
Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
Publication of non-harassing private communication.
Queer in AI prioritizes marginalized people's safety over privileged people's comfort. The Queer in AI Safety Team will not act on complaints regarding:
"Reverse"-isms, including "reverse racism", "reverse sexism", "cisphobia", and "heterophobia".
Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as "leave me alone”, "go away," or "I'm not discussing this with you."
Communicating in a "tone" you don't find congenial.
Critiques of racist, sexist, cissexist, homophobic, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions.
Reporting
If you are being harassed by a member, participant, guest, sponsor, or any other affiliate of Queer in AI or in a Queer in AI space, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the Queer in AI Safety Team via safe@queerinai.org or any individual Queer in AI organizers. If the person who is harassing you is on the Queer in AI Safety Team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. Local incidents will be handled together with the local organizers. We will respond as promptly as we can.
You can contact our parent organization, oSTEM at beaware@ostem.org with any reports that you would prefer handled outside of Queer in AI.
If you have a safety concern at an event, the Queer in AI Safety Team and organizers will help you contact venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe in the event space.
This code of conduct applies to Queer in AI spaces, but if you are being harassed by a participant of Queer in AI outside our spaces, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by Queer in AI members, especially the organizers, seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. The Queer in AI Safety Team reserves the right to exclude people from Queer in AI based on their past behavior, including behavior outside Queer in AI spaces and behavior towards people who are not in Queer in AI.
In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we've received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of Queer in AI members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
Email Template for Anti-Harassment Reporting
SUBJECT: Harassment alert at [EVENT NAME]
I am writing because of harassment in a Queer in AI space, (NAME, PLACE, DATE OF INCIDENT).
You can reach me at (CONTACT INFO). Thank you.
Consequences
Queer in AI participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
How does Queer in AI handle Code of Conduct violations and reports of harassment?
Depending on the severity of the behavior and the history of the individual, there are several different tiers of responses for Queer in AI to take.
Suppose we get an email reporting harassing behavior. First, we respond to the individual who reached out to us and let them know that their report is being processed and taken seriously. We ask for the individual’s input on what they would like to be done about the situation. Then, we contact the harasser and explain the situation, potentially offering an opportunity for reformation and apologies.
Depending on the nature and severity of the harassment, as well as the harasser’s willingness to correct their behavior, this opportunity to leave with just a warning may be revoked and we progress to the second stage of repercussions: banning the individual from future Queer in AI events and/or the Slack. If multiple repeat offenses occur, or if the severity of the act warrants it, Queer in AI may warn members of its community and/or publicize the name of the member, in particular passing this information along to the organizers of major AI conferences for a potential ban. Throughout the process, the reporter should be kept in the loop with specifics about how the safety team is responding to the report, and reports should be dealt with promptly.
In some cases, harassers may retaliate to reports by filing a report against the original reporter. Queer in AI reserves the right to discard such fraudulent reports. Reports consisting of tone-policing of minority groups will be disregarded and the reporters added to an internal list. Repeat offenders will be banned from Queer in AI events and/or the chat according to the judgement of the safety team.
Suggestions
This Code of Conduct is a living document, subject to continuous revision and annual community review. This document was last edited on September 13, 2021. Email us at safe@queerinai.org with any suggestions, questions, or comments.
License
This policy is licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license.