I was shocked reading your comment - how could you know about an incident that I thought only 2-3 people witnessed, an event where I was present but few other people were?

Then I googled it, and it turns out that you are likely referring to a larger, different event where I was not present.

It seems like he did this a lot, then? He definitely harassed a young woman at an event I organized, and did a 1-1 version of this emacs virgin thing directly 'at' her. It was weird, creepy and I did my best to deal with the situation and help the audience member feel more welcome at the event after the harassment. She was visibly upset and very uncomfortable in the moments after he said it. It happened before a talk he was scheduled to give, as the audience was arriving and sitting down.

Had no idea that this wasn't the only time it happened. Didn't know there were other instances.

Yeah :/. So, I also (well, used to... damn pandemic ;P) travel around talking to people--largely college students, as I got caught up in the whole "hackathon circuit"--about open source and, specifically, free software (I am sometimes even put in debate-style panels with people like Kyle Fogel from the Apache Foundation, so I can argue for GPL over BSD); and I have just run into too many people (and I don't mean "merely" recently, after all the recent public brouhaha about RMS: I have been doing this for a long time, and haven't even been able to do it in over a year anyway) who were turned off of the whole movement by Richard Stallman pulling stuff like this and making the entire audience unhappy and uncomfortable. I seriously would get people coming up to me afterwards saying stuff like "you know, I wasn't expecting much from your talk, because RMS came last year and [random horrible stuff happened], but you actually made this all sound so reasonable", and then I spend the weekend hanging out with everyone (which I can't imagine RMS ever getting to do) and I get converts. I just don't think RMS is winning over anywhere near as many people as he is turning away :/. And like, people can blame this on "neurological issues" all they want--and seriously: even let's assume for a moment that somehow he does have a neurological issue that makes everyone think he is misogynist even though he isn't (which I think is a strange disorder, but let's grant it for a moment)--at the end of the day it doesn't change the reality that he needs to stop being the public figurehead of this critical organization (one I fully understand he started) for the good of his own movement... and frankly, he should be realizing this himself and actually truly "stepping down" as opposed to requiring us to force him out :(.

Thanks for the detail

The emacs virgin thing is just what one would expect from a ‘60s/‘70s hippie. At the time, intelligent and activist women were busy attacking sexual taboos, largely defined by men, including virginity. Turning virginity into a joke (and with classical-lit undertones) is the type of thing “boomer women” would likely appreciate.

Alas, our modernity seems to be more prudish in these matters; so people react to this sort of thing very much like a pre-60s person; and RMS didn’t get the memo.