Sarah G & Sarah P,
After starting with Chris's post yesterday and taking the time to read through both of your posts - and replies...

Thank you!

I must come clean that my initial reaction was OK, we're all adults. Want to share that I'm a forty-something woman who started in the engineering world, for perspective.

And then I really thought about it.

I'm relatively new to WordPress & WordCamps. Over the past two years they have become fantastic events that I look forward to. No bad experiences. But have lived long enough to spend time with some very wonderful and respectful people and others who are not-so-much.

With any organization, and especially (mostly) volunteer organizations which are growing at the rate that WordPress-related anything is today... there are growing pains.
I love your recommendation for a Code of Conduct and understand that there may be some responsibility/liability issues that need to be worked through on the WordCamp side to get to done. Thankfully(and unfortunately) this is not a new problem and there are other organizations we can look to for benchmarks. Really any that have men & women together...

Back to my really thinking about it.

Why is this an issue? And why does it seem to be growing?
Maybe it's as simple as a couple bad apples (or maybe good people behaving badly) behaving in a way that is working for them... with no penalties/boundaries/discipline. WordPress & WordCamps have that OpenSource, people be reasonable, life is good attitude. It's awesome.

But as groups grow, they need rules because not everyone thinks the same way, has the same boundaries or definitions of what is acceptable.

I hate rules... but...

Without defining some basic rules, say a Code of Conduct, how do you define a basic bar above which we can all feel comfortable? If people understand where the bar is, what happens when their behavior falls below the bar (penalties) and how to handle said behavior when you experience it, then it's clear. It's handled and we can move on.

My initial reaction was, OK we're all adults. But if we're all adults, why do most companies need sexual harassment policies?

Because we're human and sex is what it is. Because it's not OK for anyone to be uncomfortable. Because not everyone understands that their behavior is being misinterpreted. Because sometimes people drink too much and it's an issue.