Its cool to be sensitive to the feelings of others. But its not actually required, not even in a civilized society. When writing "straight white men feel that we have the interpretative prerogative..." keep in mind that every free-thinking person actually does have that right. If others disagree, fine. Acting as the PC Police doesn't make you a better person; it makes you silly and anti-intellectual.
As a community with a vastly skewed gender divide (both HN and tech in general), I think it's our responsibility to try to be sensitive (even over-sensitive) to the needs of those that are underrepresented. I'm just talking about the male / female divide - I've no idea what the level of representation of the LBGT+ community is on HN, but it's probably not very high.
As a trans person with several other trans and lesbian/gay friends, I can assure you everyone here is being insanely oversensitive.
It's as if everyone here understands that they're supposed to be supportive of the LGBT community, but don't actually know anyone in it themselves and so completely misfire with their attempts at being PC
That happens a lot when people are trying to be empathetic (that's the wrong word... I can't think of a correct one though) to a group that they don't fit in themselves.
Basically, apply your statement but as a general case and it still holds, in my opinion.
apparently it is only straight white men who must follow this rule. The overly sensitive crowd doesn't usually bat an eye when a member of one of the protected groups slights another, unless of course differences in levels of protection are significant.
As in, get over it. People will find ways to take offense at anything. Most people realize where their effort is better used.
