Because publishing with the ACM is essentially required to advance our careers, we must examine its practices critically and constructively. To this end, we reflect on our experience working with the ACM student publication Crossroads. We encountered rigid content limitations related to sex and sexuality, preventing some contributors from foregrounding their connection to political activism, and others from publishing altogether. We explore the underlying institutional and sociopolitical problems and propose starting points for future action, including developing a transparent content approval policy and new organizations for politically-engaged computing researchers, all of which should center the leadership of marginalized individuals.
QC 20180904