In Support of Richard Stallman

Debunking False Accusations Against Richard Stallman

Published on April 05, 2021.  Last updated on October 25, 2024.

Richard Stallman has been accused of things he did not do. Events from decades ago were dug up, misrepresented and exaggerated ad nauseam. Things he wrote were misquoted and spread far and wide by the press through clickbait headlines that people believed without checking the facts. It's called defamation. Stallman was accused of being a misogynist, transphobic, defender of pedophilia and sexual assault. These accusations are false.

We can both assert and demonstrate that Stallman has never condoned the evils he has been accused of.

See also Testimonies, Letters, Writings that disprove the accusations against Richard Stallman.

Examining the Accusations

It's been said that Richard Stallman...

1. Defended Jeffrey Epstein
2. Said that Epstein's victims were “entirely willing”
3. Condones sexual assault
4. Defends pedophiles and pedophilia
5. Is a misogynist
   • Running Jokes
   • The Mattress
   • Suicide
   • Sign On The Door
   • Pleasure Card
   • Virgin of Emacs
6. Is an ableist
7. Is transphobic

1. Richard Stallman Did Not Defend Jeffrey Epstein #defended-epstein

That Stallman defended Epstein was a lie repeated by dozens of headlines, blogs, and in social media. In fact, the opposite is true. Stallman wished for a longer sentence for Epstein, and called the non prosecution agreement illegal.

True to his fixation with language, Stallman also criticized the law that called Epstein a “sex offender” as too weak to describe the magnitude of his crimes, proposing “serial rapist” as a more accurate term.

Here's an excerpt from Stallman's article on the subject (Archived):

(Now) Labor Secretary Acosta's plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein was not only extremely lenient, it was so lenient that it was illegal. [ Archived]

I wonder whether this makes it possible to resentence him to a longer prison term.

By contrast, calling him a “sex offender” tends to minimize his crimes, [...] I think the right term for a person such as Epstein is “serial rapist”.

He surely had a point. Epstein himself used the flawed term “sex offender” to minimize the seriousness of his crimes:

I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an “offender.” It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagle. —Jeffrey Epstein

2. Stallman Did Not Say That Epstein's Victims Were “Entirely Willing” #willing

Again, this lie was spread all over the Internet by headlines and social media. Stallman never said that. On the contrary, he said that Epstein's victims were being coerced and harmed. Here's the relevant snippet from Email #2 that he sent to the CSAIL mailing list (emphasis added):

We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to conceal that from most of his associates.

Another snippet from Email #7 (emphasis added):

“Giuffre says she was directed to have sex with Minsky.” Given the circumstances, that implies she was coerced by Epstein into doing so.

We know that Giuffre was being coerced into sex—by Epstein. She was being harmed.

3. Richard Stallman Did Not Defend Sexual Assault #sexual-assault

In the CSAIL emails, Stallman argued that “sexual assault” was the wrong term. Here's the relevant snippet from Email #2 (emphasis added):

The injustice is in the word "assaulting". The term "sexual assault" is so vague and slippery that it facilitates accusation inflation: taking claims that someone did X and leading people to think of it as Y, which is much worse than X.

Interestingly, feminist and civil rights lawyer Nadine Strossen agreed with Stallman:

So we see the term sexual assault and sexual harrassment used for example, when a guy asks a woman out on a date and she doesn’t find that an appealing invitation. Maybe he used poor judgement in asking her out, maybe he didn’t, but in any case that is NOT sexual assault or harassment. To call it that is to really demean the huge horror and violence and predation that does exist when you are talking about violent sexual assault. [...] So that is one point that he made that I think is very important that I strongly agree with. —Nadine Strossen

Stalllman's fixation with words can be irritating and out of place sometimes, but that doesn't equate with being wrong.

4. Richard Stallman Does Not Defend Pedophiles And Pedophilia #pedophilia

In 2006, Stallman published a controversial comment about the intention of pedophiles in The Netherlands to form a political party^[1]. He wrote, I am skeptical of the claim that voluntary pedophilia harms children. People today don't think that a prepubertal human being—a child—is capable of understanding all the implications of sexual activity (in some cases this may be so even after puberty). So in widespread social opinion, the concept of “voluntary” does not apply.

In the same article, Stallman writes, [...] stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing. This is not totally improper, it encompasses the immense diversity of beliefs about age of consent and morality across cultures.

As for laws, in the United States the criteria for determining age of consent and related issues differ across jurisdictions, some of them have raised the age of consent as recently as 2017 and 2019. Furthermore, the United States seems to have a double standard when it comes to these laws, since marriage of a child with an adult—even much older—is allowed under certain circumstances; we believe that this seriously disregards children's wellbeing in favor of some other “convenience.” Lastly, it may be surprising to some that age of consent in the US is 16 in 34 States (Archived).

Whatever the reasoning that led Stallman to write those statements, the fact is that later he changed his mind:

Sex Between An Adult And A Child Is Wrong ( Archived) #change-mind

14 September 2019 (Sex between an adult and a child is wrong)

Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it.

Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why.

Stallman published that note in 2019, but there is evidence that he changed his mind much earlier. At least before 2016, which is when he answered a question in an email conversation. Here's the report:

I've just written to Stallman and he explained that his views have changed significantly since the time he wrote these things. —Orthogonal1^[2]

A text attributed to Carl Sagan says:

In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know, that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

When we make an unprejudiced analysis of Stallman's thought, we can see a connection to skepticism and an inquisitive mind, which is typical of scientific thinking. Skepticism has a role to play in challenging social norms as in “I'm skeptical that human binary genders constitute an immutable truth.” Ancient Greeks, who had their own notions about proper sexuality, forced Socrates to drink poison for not believing in the gods of the state.

Excluding individuals from social life and their own careers for skepticism and exploratory thinking is an impoverished approach to achieving progress. Better results are obtained through dialogue and reasoning, as Stallman himself demonstrates.

5. Richard Stallman Is Not A Misogynist #misogynist

Richard Stallman has been defending women's rights since long before fighting misogyny became popular.

In a recent conversation with Stallman, he told us that during the 1980s he went to two mass rallies for women's rights in Washington DC. He took buses overnight along with a bunch of other demonstrators departing from Boston. #ERA

There is also evidence that Richard Stallman supported the Equal Rights Amendment:

Equal Rights for Women (Archived)

21 April 2018 (Equal Rights Amendment)

The Equal Rights Amendment has languished since the 1980s, but is just two states short of approval. The Illinois senate has just approved it. [Archived] If the Illinois lower house does likewise, it will be one state away from approval.

If Democrats take back several states in November, the ERA could actually pass.

A number of women have given testimony of how respectful Richard Stallman has always been. See, for example, articles by Nadine Strossen and Hannah Wolfman, Sylvia Paull, Renata Avila, and more. Comments by Nina Paley, bdalzell, Emma Pam, Carla Schroder, and more. Letters by Beatriz Busaniche, Chrystalleni Loizidou, Bonnie B. Dalzell, Francisca Pacheco López, and more.

We had a look at the section on love ( Archived) in Stallman's website. What we saw is a tenderhearted, caring man.

Just in case there is still any doubt, we are now in the process of compiling more evidence of his support for women in a page that already contains some of the many articles he has written over the years showing his support for women; we hope to be able to keep working on that page, with articles going back in the years, but it may take long to complete, there are hundreds. A search in stallman.org/archives may be faster.

So no, there is no room for this kind of... “inaccuracies.”

OK, so why then is he being accused of misogyny? #why-misogynist

The accusation of misogyny comes mostly from two sources. One is a blog post^[3] by MIT alumna Selam Jie Gano in which she presents “witnesses” who told her “horrifying stories” about how RMS' behavior made the environment for women uncomfortable “in a very real and visceral way.” The other one is a website^[4] by and for geek women.

Let's see what they have to say in this non-judicial trial:

• Running Jokes #running-jokes

  I recall being told early in my freshman year “If RMS hits on you, just say ‘I’m a vi user’” even if it’s not true.

  That sounds much as part of a series of running jokes at MIT to mock Stallman for his unpopularity among women. Such jocular remarks included things like:

  • Tell him you are a Vim user (old story Vim vs Emacs).
  • Put plants in your office to keep him away (also a men's joke).
  • Don't ride in the elevator with him (danger of being bitten by a “stuffed animal”).

  And probably others that we don't know. Stallman was unpopular not because he was some sort of a monster harassing women, but because he was seen as unattractive, clueless, and bizarre.

  Update 2021-04-11: A reader who wishes to remain anonymous tells us that he saw back in the days at MIT how people—both women and men—would avoid Stallman because they were annoyed by his constant preaching about free software.

  We came across an example of this. A woman tweeted that Stallman gave her a “stuffed animal” while riding the elevator with him (it was probably a gnu, to tell her about GNU and free software). But it sounds like she did not appreciate it. Here's the tweet^[5]:

  

  The intention of the tweet is not clear, but it was a reply to someone who was accusing Stallman of defending rape—backing the claim with the picture of a certain sign on the door.

  Was the sign on the door evidence that Stallman supported rape? Certainly not. Did the woman who replied with the story of the puppet hope it would count as evidence? Maybe. The fact is that they were posted on September 13, 2019, three days before Stallman's resignation, when some people were spreading misinformation in a wild effort to present “evidence” of alleged misbehavior.

• The Mattress #mattress

  He literally used to have a mattress on the floor of his office. He kept the door to his office open, to proudly showcase that mattress and all the implications that went with it. Many female students avoided the corridor with his office for that reason... I was one of the course 6 undergrads who avoided that part of NE43 precisely for that reason. (the mattress was also known to have shirtless people lounging on it...)

  The man seen with the mattress was not Stallman but someone else. Prof. Gerald Jay Sussman, who at the time had an office next to it, told us:

  That mattress was in an office between Stallman's office and my office. I remember that a common occupant of that mattress was a person called “Tom”, who was tolerated by, but unrelated to Richard or his group.
  —Gerald Jay Sussman

  It seems it was not unusual for people to keep a mattress in their offices—to take a nap. As someone comments, If you see ‘implications’ in something like that you are truly a deranged person.

• Suicide #suicide

  A woman who signs “Betsy S.” claimed that more than 40 years ago Stallman threatened to commit suicide if she didn't agree to start a romantic relationship with him. This person did not attempt to elucidate things and check the accuracy of her memories through dialogue with Stallman before launching her four-decades-late accusation which, again, happened at a time when some people were desperately trying to defame the initiator of the free software movement.

  We have now found that that interaction with Betsy S. happened in early 1982, when Stallman was in a state of despair with the collapse of the AI Lab: Oh, my poor AI lab, you are dying and I can't save you. [...] I lost all at once my social network, my opportunity to pursue my career in an upright fashion, and most of what I had helped to build.^[6]

  In an interview by Steven Levy from 1982, published in Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Stallman says, I'm the last survivor of a dead culture, and I don't really belong in the world anymore. And in some ways I feel I ought to be dead.^[7]

  We are also told by people close to Stallman that he has a tendency to wish for his own death when things go wrong.

  We therefore conclude that any serious analysis of whatever happened during that conversation requires contextualization, and memories of what was actually said more than 40 years ago should be carefully checked, ideally through dialogue between the two parties involved.

  Last but not least, we are disconcerted by the woman's cold-hearted remark, “He was not a man of his word or he'd be long dead.”

  All the same, Stallman apologized.

  The accusation:

  When I was a teen freshman, I went to a buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant in Central Square with a graduate student friend and others from the AI lab. I don’t know if he and I were the last two left, but at a table with only the two of us, Richard Stallman told me of his misery and that he’d kill himself if I didn’t go out with him. I felt bad for him and also uncomfortable and manipulated. I did not like being put in that position - suddenly responsible for an “important” man. What had I done to get into this situation? I decided I could not be responsible for his living or dying, and would have to accept him killing himself. I declined further contact. He was not a man of his word or he’d be long dead.
  Betsy S.

  The apology:

  Stallman's Apology to Betsy S. (Archived) #apology

  19 July 2020 (A note to Betsy S.)

  Betsy S met me at a lunch around 40 years ago. I am sure her recounting of her recollections is sincere, but she must have misunderstood the last thing I said to her. She said she didn't want an acquaintance with me. That no, on top of so many noes from others, impelled me to express despair; she seems to have misconstrued that as a demand.

  Betsy S, I regret that this misunderstanding caused you distress. I never intended to demand anything of you. I only ever wished you well.

• Sign On The Door #door

  A certain sign on the door is another pretext people found to accuse Stallman of misogynism. No. Stallman never put that sign on his door. Someone else did, either as a joke or vandalism. Stallman took it down.

• Pleasure Card #card

  

  The dichotomy of “business vs. pleasure” is well known. Given Stallman's inclination to play with words and even change the name of things to either oppose or mock established concepts, we believe that's one reason why he chose to call it a “pleasure card” instead of the conventional “business card.” And if we look at his lifelong activism for software freedom and other human rights, a second obvious reason is that he has never thought of making money as a main purpose of his life.

  Handing out cards to those we wish to keep in contact with is normal and a better practice than asking for people's phone number or email address. It's better because it avoids pressuring the receiver. Traditionally, a man asked a woman how to contact her, which could make her feel pressured. Stallman avoids that. In case a woman is not interested in further conversations, she can reject the card, take it and throw it away, or chose to never phone or email him.

  However, what some people complain about is not that Stallman hands out his card or how he calls it, it's the wording in it. That wording is the result of Stallman's inclination to playfulness. It's recursive humor, something that hackers like. It's recursive in that it is an example of what the card itself says: “unusual sense of humour.”

  Even though Stallman hands out these cards to men and women alike, some women take it as highly offensive, to the point of describing it as “sexual harassment.” For the sake of advancing sensible thinking, intellectual honesty, and fairness towards victims of real sexual harassment, let's stop hyperbolizing and recognize that it's not anything near “sexual harassment.”

  We don't know which are the precise words in the card that some women find offensive. We suspect it could be the expression “tender embraces,” and/or the word “exotic.” There is in fact a wave of new puritans who seem to think it is disgusting for people to admit they wish to find a romantic relationship, except perhaps when hidden in some dating website or app.

  A “tender embrace” is a hug which expresses a feeling of warmth and caring, it does not normally refer to sex. With the level of exaggeration fueled by the new puritans we are witnessing these days, one cannot avoid wondering: if Stallman had started the Free Hugs Campaign, would he be accused of “sexual harassment” for that as well?

  As for “exotic,” Stallman uses the word as a qualifier for music and dance. If we look at Stallman's preferences in these two fields, we can see that most—if not all—of the music and dance he likes is foreign and mostly unknown in the U.S., which fits the dictionary definition: “From another part of the world.”

  Margarita Lacabe, a platonic girlfriend of Stallman's from the 80s, gives testimony of how he would share his music with her and dance: “He had me over to his place to listen to Indonesian music (or something of the sort), while he danced...”

  Fortunately though, not all women feel that Stallman's cards are “meant to be sexual come ons.” Some even appreciate the sense of humor in them.

  Here's an ironic meme depicting the dangers of the card, and Richard Stallman dancing with a robot in his Bulgarian custom at MIT in the 70s. (Source)

  And here is Stallman again performing a traditional dance with a member of the Yale Political Union who doesn't look to have taken offense. ( Source).

  Update 2023-06-23: We are told that Stallman has run out of cards so he had this new one printed. The offending “exotic” and “tender embraces” are gone. Will people find it as offensive? #new-card

  

• Virgin of Emacs #virgin

  

  Saint iGNUcius. February 2009,
  Oslo. Photo by Gisle Hannemyr
  (CC BY-SA 2.0)

  At the end of some of his speeches, Stallman at times introduces a comedic sketch in which he presents himself as “St. iGNUcius,” a saint in the “church of Emacs.” This is because the community of Emacs users has traditionally called itself a “church,” in a humorous way, due to their total devotion to the program.

  The sketch includes a series of jokes related to various religions. For example, it mentions a “Foobar Mitzvah” ceremony; living a life of purity that “does not require celibacy;” exorcizing the evil of proprietary software from “possessed computers;” and the like.

  One of the jokes refers to the Virgin Mary. It says that anyone who has never used Emacs is a “Virgin of Emacs,” and that offering the virgin “the opportunity to lose Emacs virginity is a blessed act.” Since it referred to the Virgin Mary, the gender in the joke was female.

  In 2009 someone objected the virgin joke was disrespectful towards women. At the time, Stallman sent an explanatory email^[8] and, after some thought, he decided to leave the virgin's gender unspecified to avoid offending anyone (video). He also has recently published a thorough account ( Archived) about this matter. It describes the changes he made in his way of speaking—far beyond this one comedy routine—in response to that criticism. #virgin-gender

6. Richard Stallman Is Not An Ableist #ableist

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “ableist” is an adjective that means “treating people unfairly because they have a disability (= an illness, injury, or condition that makes it difficult for them to do things that most other people can do)”.^[9]

For completeness, it is important to also look at what the same dictionary tells us about the meaning of the noun “people.” In this context, the definition that applies is the first: men, women and children. ^[10]

With those concepts in mind, there is no evidence that Richard Stallman ever discriminated against or mistreated people with disabilities.

The claim that he is an ableist is based on something he wrote in his website about a new noninvasive test for pregnant women that would detect fetuses with Down syndrome. However, the way he worded it came across as if he was referring to people already born, and it hurt some readers, specially those who had a family member with that condition.

That post was first published on October 31, 2016, captured by the wayback machine a few days later on November 7, 2016.

Various modifications to that initial post show that Stallman kept thinking about the subject and elaborated his writing accordingly. The next capture available at the wayback machine is from February 21, 2017, which shows some changes in the text. In a capture from June 12, 2017, we can see further elaboration of the text and a change in the structure of the article to divide lines of thought into different paragraphs, in an effort to present his position in the most clear possible way. Since then, the text has remained the same:

Down's Syndrome (Archived)

31 October 2016 (Down's syndrome)

A noninvasive test for Down's syndrome eliminates the small risk of the old test. This might lead more women to get tested, and abort fetuses that have Down's syndrome. [Archived]

According to Wikipedia, Down's syndrome is a combination of many kinds of medical misfortune. Thus, when carrying a fetus that is likely to have Down's syndrome, I think the right course of action for the woman is to terminate the pregnancy.

That choice does right by the potential children that would otherwise likely be born with grave medical problems and disabilities. As humans, they are entitled to the capacity that is normal for human beings. I don't advocate making rules about the matter, but I think that doing right by your children includes not intentionally starting them out with less than that.

When children with Down's syndrome are born, that's a different situation. They are human beings and I think they deserve the best possible care.

It is important to consider that not everyone agrees that the best course of action is to abort a fetus with Down Syndrome or other disabilities. Furthermore, not everyone agrees with the dictionary definition of “people.” Many sustain that fetuses are complete human beings from the moment of conception; these positions condemn abortion under all circumstances.

To be sure, there are members of the free software community who hold different opinions on this and other matters. Should we exclude abortion supporters or opponents from our communities? Not a good idea. If we did, we would probably be left with half the number of members. Should we engage in condemnation, punishment and name-calling when in disagreement? We don't think so. In healthy communities, we must respect people's right to state their views, even when we disagree.

On the other hand, studies show that abortion rates are high in Europe and the United States for cases of pregnancies diagnosed with Down syndrome. It follows that, according to the accusers, all of them are ableists.

Here's the point of view of a disabled Debian developer on the subject.

7. Richard Stallman Is Not Transphobic #transphobic

This accusation is so far-fetched that it almost elicits a piteous smile. It's based on an essay ( Archived) by Stallman in which he presents the results of his thinking on how to best refer to a person without specifying gender. In it, he argues that the use of the singular “they” is not the best choice because it eliminates one of the grammar mechanisms we use to make sentences clear. He demonstrates this with examples of how the use of “they” in some constructions results in ambiguity.

Stallman comes up with a solution by borrowing the pronouns person, per and pers used by Marge Piercy in her book Woman on the Edge of Time.

Here are two snippets from the book that show the use of these genderless pronouns:

The story is a future utopia where people are kinder to each other and they use these pronouns to put an end to sexism.

Stallman read this novel in the 70s, when Marge Piercy's books in general were quite popular. This one in particular became a classic of feminist literature that has been reprinted several times since its first edition in 1976. Piercy's introduction (Archived) to the 2016 edition is a close view of where we stand in our way to social justice 40 years later.

Contrary to the accusations, the fact that Stallman spent time and effort to find a solution to respect people who identify as non-binary is evidence that he cares and is not transphobic.

Most importantly, Richard Stallman's website provides unquestionable evidence not only that he is not transphobic, but that he has actively advocated for the rights of transgender people for years. Some examples (for more, search stallman.org/archives):

Call to support the Transgender Equal Rights Bill ( Archived)

20 February 2011 (Urgent: Support Transgender Equal Rights Bill)

Massachusetts citizens: urge your state rep and senator to vote for the Transgender Equal Rights Bill.

Transgender soldiers (Archived)

29 July 2017 (Urgent: transgender soldiers)

US citizens: call on Congress to reject the ban on transgender soldiers [ Archived]

Don’t deny trans people their rights (Archived)

27 October 2017 (Trans people and male violence)

“Don’t deny trans people their rights because of male violence” [Archived]

If some women are afraid that abusive men will hide behind a “transgender” label, I won't criticize them, but it seems to be a spurious fear because macho men are unlikely to do that. Machismo teaches men to be horrified of appearing feminine.

Prosecution for sex exchange treatments ( Archived)

28 February 2022 (Ordered the prosecution for sex-change treatments)

The governor of Texas has ordered prosecution of anyone (including parents) involved in providing sex-change treatments to transgender youth. [Archived] This attempts to twist a law that Republicans failed to actually change. Some DAs in Texas have said they will refuse to comply prosecute.

However, those families (and many others) may be persecuted anyway as state agencies investigate them, looking for an excuse to take their children away.

(Stallman also supports gays, but since he has not been explicitly accused of being “gayphobic,” we'll leave that out.)

---

References and Notes

1. Dutch paedophiles form political party. ( Archived) ^↑
2. Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. ( Archived) ^↑
3. Selam J. Gano's “Appendix A” (Archived)^↑
4. Geek Feminism Website ( Archived) ^↑
5. Elevator Tweet (Archived) ^↑
6. The Road to GNU ( Archived) ^↑
7. Levy, Steven (2010). Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution, p. 373 (25th Anniversary Ed., O'Reilly Media)(Original work published 1984). ^↑
8. Email about the virgin of Emacs. (Archived) ^↑
9. Definition of “ableist”. ( Archived) ^↑
10. Definition of “people”. ( Archived) ^↑
11. Fair use: to illustrate a reference to the book in this article. Source. (Archived) Copyright by the publisher or the artist. ^↑