[underscore]

I'm a gay programmer, and I'm not quite sure how my sexual orientation would affect how I code. If it is any help, most of the people around me seem to think I'm competent enough, at least to the point that they don't complain about what I write to my face. Perhaps they'll find this thread and respond.

The more interesting question, at least to me, would be about the experiences of gay programmers (I guess I'm biased). I can't speak for all gay programmers, but I know that my sexual orientation would certainly affect the people I choose to work for (e.g.: I'd like to work for someone who provided benefits for a same-sex partner, or who donated money to gay rights causes, while I'd probably not ever work for a company with a history of opposing (with policies or money) gay rights). It probably also affects the atmosphere of the place that I do work: perhaps co-workers deal with a gay colleague differently (not necessarily on a good/bad continuum: only differently) than they would a straight colleague. I could go on, but you probably get the idea.

Most of the replies present when I started this comment were skeptical of the possibility of a correlation between sexual orientation and code quality. I happen to agree. What about the correlation between sexual orientation and employment in certain industries (affecting what code we write)? What about sexual orientation and choosing to be a programmer at all?

I'm kind of hoping that this doesn't get downvoted to oblivion: it might make for an interesting discussion (or flame war).

[rtfa]

But you are not skeptical about correlations between programming talent and gender, are you?

[underscore]

I'm not really familiar enough with the subject to know whether I should be. If there are any serious studies out there about gender and code quality, I'd love to read them. While gender itself may well be irrelevant when it comes to programming aptitude, the way that a society treats girls and women (and the fact that it may be (is, for mine) different than the way it treats boys and men) could influence how many/which women go into the world of programming, which might in turn influence the quality of what they produce.

I can't remember ever meeting a female programmer that I didn't later come to respect for their skill. Anecdotal evidence isn't really useful, though.

edit: Good point. I guess that if a correlation may exist for women by this logic, it may well also exist for non-mainstream sexual orientations.

[rtfa]

... Do you find it too far-fetched to think of wanting to kiss a fireman as a girlish quality?