YC’s Peter Thiel Problem is Not About Trump. It’s About Misogyny.

Paypal co-founder/early Facebook investor/YC part-time partner Peter Thiel’s verbal and financial support of Donald Trump has caused something of an uproar in the tech world, to the extent that Sam Altman, President of YC, felt the need to publish this post. It included the statement below:

“…as repugnant as Trump is to many of us, we are not going to fire someone over his or her support of a political candidate. As far as we know, that would be unprecedented for supporting a major party nominee, and a dangerous path to start down (of course, if Peter said some of the things Trump says himself, he would no longer be part of Y Combinator).”

Sam is right. It would be wholly undemocratic to fire someone because of the candidate he supports — a dangerous precedent to set, indeed.

But that is not the issue.

Peter Thiel has publicly stated things that are as misogynistic as has Trump, if not more so.

In 1995, he co-wrote this, discrediting the existence of date rape. As noted in an article published in New York Magazine on October 21, 2016, he has not addressed “his stance on rape and sexual assault” since.

In 2009, he wrote this article, demonstrating negative views on women’s suffrage (say what?). “The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics,” in part because of “the extension of the franchise to women …” Thiel expounds.

Sam Altman claims that he is “interested in doing whatever [he] can to help [women], because the venture business has definitely been unfair to women,” in another post here.

If that is truly YC’s aim, the right thing to do should be obvious.

YC should cut ties with Thiel, and they should define a culture such that tacit support of anti-woman beliefs never happens again.

Even better, they should replace Thiel with a new partner. Perhaps a self-made female billionaire. Someone with a talent for recognizing the expansive set of strengths that women bring to the table, their broad capacity for empathetic, effective, wildly profitable leadership.

Maybe Oprah is available? No joke. Hire Oprah. If she will have you.

Or better still, when is Oprah entering VC?