feature image via Shutterstock.
Hi all.
Well it’s been a wild ride and I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this for the last three days, but this week I found out that Queer Your Tech is ending. So this is the last Queer Your Tech, as the title may suggest. I’m still going to be at Autostraddle, writing Liquor in the _____, Relevant To Your Interests and Gayme Night, as well as whatever else might tickle fancies, both yours and mine.
Why is Queer Your Tech ending, you might ask? Well, for a couple reasons. As I move farther from the tech world that I was so steeped in when I first arrived at Autostraddle, it’s been harder and harder for me to find technology topics that I feel passionate about. That’s not to say that I don’t feel tech feels—I absolutely do! But do I feel an every-weekend amount of tech feels? I don’t really know. I also think that more mainstream technology coverage has gotten wise to covering tech with a queer bent to it AND with a beginner bent to it Some of the coverage that I felt was missing back in 2012 when I began writing Queer Your Tech—things that felt accessible to those outside the industry, an openly feminist analysis, ya know, that sort of stuff—is now baked into websites that cover nothing but tech.
Check out, for instance, Taylor Hatmaker at Techcrunch. Taylor works at A-Camp and used to cover tech here at Autostraddle. I feel like Techcrunch has really let her off the chain recently, and I read her work avidly. There’s a Pride thing on a major tech website, and I just don’t remember that sort of thing happening when I decided we needed Queer Your Tech. Lesbians Who Tech didn’t exist back then. Many things have changed, and mostly for the better.
Some things have changed for the worse, too. This current US administration has a shocking lack of regard for privacy and information security. Such a shocking lack of regard for it that everyone’s talking about it, including websites outside of the technology sphere. There hasn’t been much I can add to it without being redundant.
Even knowing all that, I’m still pretty bummed about it—Queer Your Tech is one of the longest-running columns at Autostraddle. Even with the knowledge that it’s the best decision that could be made, I’m still sad. I’ve been doing this almost five years. That’s longer than I’ve been doing anything in my entire adult life. I’m still here to nerd out with you, though, and if you want any technology stuff covered on Autostraddle, my email is still ali [at] autostraddle.com. My Twitter is still up and running (y’all have tipped me off to a lot over the years). Y’all know where to find me.
It’s been a pleasure writing your technology column for the past half a decade. Keep it nerdy, queermos.
love,
Ali
