"Private" conversations held with people in close quarters (e.g. conference keynote-esqe seating) is not a private conversation. Sexual jokes create an unnecessarily hostile and unwelcoming environment, especially when women are so drastically underrepresented.
I fully support her in calling them out publicly. Quietly informing the authorities does little.
I'm sorry, we just disagree. I'm the type of woman who will speak to people if I find their speech to be that distracting if I'm unable to move. These guys? If I was that upset? I would turned and said "eyup mates, can you keep it down? I'm having a hard time hearing the speaker"
I don't police their conversation, any more than I would like them to police mine.
I don't like passive-aggressiveness. I spent a lot of my life being passive-aggressive and always wondering why nothing ever changed.
As an aside, every PyCon attendee agreed to a code of conduct during registration, and the conference staff are available to address and remedy violations of that code.
I appreciate that PyCon has a good policy and applaud all conferences that make an effort to make their conference a safe place. Through a mix of official (staff) and community enforcement (tweets/public outcry), one day it will be truly welcoming and all members will live up to the code of conduct.
'Be careful about what you say when at PyCon. Otherwise someone might hear you, report you to the authorities and post your photo on the internet resulting in you losing your job'.
And she broke the CoC by posting a picture of the people in question with a derogatory statement on twitter. Thats far worse than the joke they said to themselves.
I fully support her in calling them out publicly. Quietly informing the authorities does little.