<h2>Consider supporting Monica Cellio's gofundme <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/stop-stack-overflow-from-defaming-its-users" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here >>></a></h2>

<p>A popular and well-respected volunteer network moderator, Monica
Cellio, <a href="https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5193">was terminated without warning</a> and <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/334133">portrayed to the
press as misgendering trans people</a> by Stack Overflow, Inc. All
signs suggest this was an erroneous, if not malicious, decision not
founded on fact, which the company is completely failing to take any
responsibility for. <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/333965">This has caused an enormous and ongoing uproar in
the community.</a></p>

<p>Monica and the community have been quite literally <strong>begging</strong> for
<em>some</em> kind of response from the company either opening up a path to reinstatement, or justifying their decision to terminate her, for more
than a month now. She's made many good-faith offers to talk, and
others have offered to mediate (and made <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/search?q=monica">dozens of constructive
suggestions on how to resolve the situation</a>). Several members of the
Lavender community have spoken up on her behalf, e.g. in <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/336731">this prominent post</a>.</p>

<p>So far, Stack Overflow, Inc. has met all of this with thunderous
silence. As a long-time contributor and someone always willing to see
the good in the company's and its employees' actions and assume good
faith, I'm still struggling to come to terms with the corporate
callousness of this behaviour which we have to assume now is the new
normal.</p>

<p><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/336526">Having exhausted all other means of communication,</a> Monica is now
raising funds for potential legal action to clear her name. This is in
her own interest, but arguably also in the interest of the SO
community at large. While only the libel is likely to be legally
actionable, it might establish at least <em>some</em> boundaries to what the
company can do to its volunteers, as well as be a symbolic slap in the
face of a business that appears to have lost all respect for the
community that keeps it alive.</p>

<p>I have complete trust the funds will be used well and anything left
over (say because they decide to do the right thing after all and
legal action becomes unnecessary) will go toward good causes. </p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/stop-stack-overflow-from-defaming-its-users" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Consider supporting her today.</a></strong></p>

Fabio says Reinstate Monica