Yesterday, American tech magazine WIRED published a report that implied that a "gay tech mafia," made up of a network of homosexual men who hold top executive roles in Silicon Valley, was increasingly controlling the levers of power in the tech hub. However, the piece titled "Inside the Gay Tech Mafia" is now facing backlash for pushing homophobic tropes.

WIRED says it conducted several interviews with people deep in Silicon Valley to get their perspectives for the report. But critics say that the writer, Zoë Bernard, turned to "shadow reporting" and relied on social observations and second-hand accounts to map out an elite, exclusionary circle of gay men.

Here is everything that you need to know:

What did the WIRED piece claim? 

The article centres on the idea that gay men in tech have moved from the "outsider" status of the 1990s to a position of immense, concentrated power today. Bernard argues that this isn't just a collection of successful individuals, but a "mafia-style" network that hires within its own ranks, invests in each other's startups and exerts influence over the industry's future.

In the piece, Bernard claims, "No one can say exactly when, or if, gay men started running Silicon Valley. They seem to have dominated its upper ranks at least the past five years, maybe more. On platforms like X, the clues are there: whispers of private-island retreats, tech executives going ‘gay for clout,’ and the suggestion that a ‘seed round’ is not, strictly speaking, a financial term."

Bernard added that, "When I ask Joel to explain how the gay tech mafia works, he tells me that it’s similar to people who ‘went to the same college or came from a similar background or a similar town.’ And it indeed started, he says, with people like [Keith] Rabois and [Peter] Thiel, who, after they rose to power, ‘brought a lot of people along. Keith hired gays at Square, and Peter hired Mike [Solana] at Founders Fund. Then there was a cohort of Google gays that Marissa Mayer ran in 2010. And there is Sam [Altman], who is friends with Keith, and Sam was running in parallel, assembling other gays around him.’"  

How was it reported? 

The piece also attempts to trace "deal-flow," suggesting that a small group of gay investors are disproportionately funding each other's companies.  

"Meanwhile, when straight men attempt to tap into the gay network, the gay investors chat amongst themselves. Mark, who hosts dinner parties and events for the gay tech community in San Francisco, says that he noticed one man constantly RSVPing to his events. ‘We don’t have a purity test,’ he says, ‘but someone said that guy is definitely not gay, he just goes to the gay man events because he wants deal flow,’" she writes. 

Why the controversy?

The images in the piece also faced backlash online. One features an image of two men's waists with hands sticking out of their zippers and giving each other a handshake. Another image had a man lying in a rather erotic position with a skyscraper.

"More than the title am thinking what's wrong with the guy that picked this image?" an X user posted. 

Critics of the actual article called it "shoddy journalism: anon quotes, unconfirmed rumours, catty tone, identity-based stereotypes, no consideration that maybe these gays have talent." 

WIRED or the writer has not publicly commented on any of the backlash received online.

However, an editor at the magazine said in response to a comment on the original post, "I must've first heard the phrase 'gay tech mafia' oh, 10 years ago now? It's always bothered me that no one ever wrote about it. Here we attempt to do so – so that you might be allowed, even encouraged, to question its merits."