a lot of my female friends are terrified of speaking up at conferences because they don't want to run afoul of people like adria richards. There are several recent, documented, cases where groups like the ada initiative are rather viciously attacking other women because they don't agree with them.

People weren't lashing out at her because she raised an issue about perceived sexist behaviour, they lashed out at her because she was seen as being a bully.

As a gay man, if I had a militant online following that I sic'ed on some random person because I heard them make a joke about Lisp at a conference.. I would hope that people would stand up to me about it.