On Sun, 19 Aug 2012, Rohan McLeod <rhn(a)jeack.com.au> wrote: What are you asking about? Why do people think it's a good thing? It's because generally members of minority groups feel marginalised so having a company make an official video release (using the in-house video production resources that could have been used to make training materials) really matters to them. This matters not only to members of the minority groups in question but also to their friends and relatives as well as random people on mailing lists who care about social justice. Why did Red Hat do it? Firstly it's good PR. People who approve of such things are in enough positions of influence that it can have a positive financial result. Secondly it's good for morale and staff retention. It's been shown that members of minority groups are more likely to disclose their status in a company with such a supportive environment which leads to more trust and better job performance. Also it enourages a more diverse range of people to apply for jobs which really helps for a company that hires many people with fairly unique and specialised skills. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

On Wed, 22 Aug 2012, Rohan McLeod <rhn(a)jeack.com.au> wrote: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_gets_better You probably missed the back story. The above URLs have the main web site for the "It Gets Better" project and the Wikipedia page about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfZhjUVlWE The initial concept was to spread the idea that although high school is a horrible experience for many people (particularly GLBT kids) life gets better and you shouldn't kill yourself. I first became aware of it with the video by Dan and Terry at the above URL which clearly explained how their lives had become better. I really recommend that you watch the video. Now when Red Hat (and other companies) use the "It Gets Better" slogan with video snippets which seem to be more evidence of things already being a lot better than people would expect it's probably not going to make much sense without the back story. The "It Gets Better" slogan now seems to be generically used for anything which promotes gender and sexuality diversity. The connection with the subject line is that the OP really cares about these issues and is glad that Red Hat is helping with it. The "Wow" would be due to the fact that it's expected that most companies expect employees to pass as straight cis-gender. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

On Wed, 22 Aug 2012, Russell Coker wrote: The Closing Ceremony of the last Olympics are actually great advertising - the musicians are a very diverse bunch, and they play more or less a soundtrack of at least two generations. Regards Peter