On Being A Nice Hacker Princess

Spring break. I was sitting in the airport, lamenting that three of my professors had assigned work due the week after break, but delighted that there was enough WiFi to squeeze in a half hour of work. I was focused, writing something in C++ for my Computer Vision class when I noticed a girl peering over my shoulder, maybe 7 or 8 years old & with a ponytail.

Me: "Hi"

Girl: "Um, are you a hacker?"

I was outwardly very amused and inwardly very pleased at the question.

Me: "No, not exactly. I'm in college & I study Computer Science. I write code to ask my computer to make things like websites or Candy Crush. So it's kind of like being a nice hacker."

The girl was thoughtful for a second, ignoring her mom's call that it was time to board. Then she said "OK" & ran off to her mom, who smiled apologetically to me as her daughter jumped up and down in front of her & informed her of important news.

Girl: "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a hacker"

Mom: "A hacker? This morning you wanted to be a princess!"

Girl: "Yeah! Both! I mean, I want- I want to be a ummmmm nice hacker princess"

A Nice. Hacker. Princess.

As I watched them leave, my heart swelled full of hope. There was something so pure, so quietly radical about her statement. She could be a hacker even though she was a princess, dammit. The two did not involve an XOR* in her book.

I used to want to be a software engineer or a researcher or a data scientist, but my aspirations changed in that moment: I, too, wanna be a nice hacker princess. I want to revel in my CS femmeness, I want to break things & fix them & get elbow-deep in code in a hella cute dress. I want to taste the satisfaction of functional code, admire it's resemblance to magic. I want to hack my IDE's into having glitter font. (jk, mostly) I want to do all of this while being nice- contributing my hacker-princess talents to something meaningful, something kind & impactful & clever.

I found a role model in a 7yr old, a small blonde creature who saw no limit in her potential, no paradox in her newfound dream. I refuse to use XOR's in my vernacular, to limit my princessliness with real or self-imposed expectations and inhibitions. I will forever find power in what femmetech means to me. And whether you are woman, man, fluid, trans, all of the above, or none of the above, I invite you to find power in whatever that means to you.

XOR XOXO 
Yrs truly,

a nice hacker princesses

*XOR = "exclusive or". Either this or that, but not both. 

The Problem with #BoycottIndiana

After 63 House Reps, 40 Senators, and Mike Pence gave the go-ahead on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the nation exploded. Concerned about the bill’s potential to be a thinly-veiled rationalization of discrimination against LGBTAQ+ folks, hundreds of groups have responded with outrage.

Local and national celebrities, businesses, religious groups, politicians, and conventions have gone to great lengths to express their opposition to the measure. I mean, when Reggie Miller, Miley Cyrus, and Tim Cook all tweet about the same issue in the same day, you know something’s up.

Big names like Salesforce, Angie’s List, the entire city government of San Francisco, the NCAA, Gen Con, and Yelp have all responded with threats or actions to reduce or eliminate their business dealings in Indiana. To these noble efforts to #BoycottIndiana, I have one word:

Don’t.

I am a proud Hoosier. I am queer. And I’m one of the thousands of LGBTAQ+ kids and adults across the state that are fighting for a place in this beautiful state. We’re here and we’re queer and when you boycott Indiana, you boycott us.

So stay. Stay and fight with us. Stay and offer a young lesbian a summer job in a safe space. Stay and donate to our queer candidates, lobbyists, and organizations. Stay and invest in housing that’s safe for transfolks. Stay and support our arts, our writings, our families, and our local communities.

Stay because too many people have told us again and again that we’re not wanted here.  Stay because I’m not ready to give up on the place I call home.

Don’t boycott Indiana. Invest.