Eben Moglen & SFLC — abusive employer & LGBTQIA+ unfriendly

[ The below is a personal statement that I make on my own behalf. While my statement's release coincides with a release of an unrelated statement on similar topics made by my employer, Software Freedom Conservancy, and the Free Software Foundation Europe, please keep in mind that this statement is my own, personal opinion — written exclusively by me — and not necessarily the opinion of either of those organizations. I did not consult nor coordinate with either organization on this statement. ]

With great trepidation, I have decided to make this public statement regarding the psychological abuse, including menacing, that I suffered, perpetrated by Eben Moglen, both while I was employed at his Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) from 2005-2010, and in the years after he fired me. No one revels in having psychological injuries and mistreatment they've suffered paraded to the public. I'll be frank that if it were not for Moglen's use of the USA Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) as a method to perpetrate further abusive behavior, I wouldn't have written this post. Furthermore, sadly, Moglen has threatened in recent TTAB filings his intention to use the proceeding to release personal details about my life to the public (using the litigation itself as a lever). I have decided to preemptively make public the facts herein first myself — so that I can at least control the timing and framing of the information.

This post is long; the issues discussed in it are complicated, nuanced, and cannot be summed up easily. Nevertheless, I'm realistic that most people will stop reading soon, so I'll summarize now as best I can in a few sentences: I worked initially with, and then for, Eben Moglen for nearly a decade — during which time he was psychologically abusive and gaslighted me (under the guise of training and mentoring me). I thought for many years that he was one of my best friends (— in retrospect, I believe that he tricked me into believing that he was). As such, I shared extremely personal details about myself to him — which he has used both contemporaneously and in years hence to attempt to discredit me with my colleagues and peers. Recently, Moglen declared his plans to use current TTAB proceedings to force me to answer questions about my mental health in deposition⁰. Long ago, I disclosed key personal information to Moglen, I therefore have a pretty good idea of what his next move will be during that deposition questioning. Specifically, I believe Moglen was hoping to out me as omni/bisexual¹ as part of my deposition in this proceeding. As such, I'm outing myself here first (primarily) to disarm his ability to use what he knows about my sexual orientation against me. Since that last sentence makes me already out, Moglen will be unable to use the biggest “secret” that Moglen “has on me” in his future psychological and legal attacks.

I suspect some folks will stop reading here, but I really urge that you keep reading this post, and also to read the unrelated statement made by Conservancy and FSFE. The details are important and matter. I am admittedly embarrassed to talk publicly about how Moglen exacerbated, expanded, and caused new symptoms of my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) — which I already suffered from when I met him. But, I feel it is important to talk about these issues publicly for many reasons — including that Moglen seeks to expose these personal facts about me as an attempt to stigmatize what is actually a positive thing: I seek ongoing treatment for my PTSD (which Moglen himself, in part, caused) and to simultaneously process and reduce my (painful and stubborn) internalized shame about my LGBTQIA+ status. (Like many proud LGBTQIA+ folks, I struggle with this because living in a society unfriendly to LGBTQIA+ folks can lead to difficult shame issues — this is a well-documented phenomena that LGBTQIA+ folks l