I wanted to make things more inclusive, welcoming, diverse, and equitable for underrepresented people, so I fought for it, while I was programming software.
In 2022, that had work has begun to pay off with laws passing here in Washington state, and with shareholder proposals from $AAPL shareholders being approved related to that advocacy.
During this time, I was pushed out of a career I loved, and have been driven further into a financial hole. I have continued to try to get a job, writing a lot of sample code to prove I know how to program.
I've been told I am not a principal software engineer, didn't do any work at my last job, been called a diversity hire, and even had my existence questioned by a random stranger on HackerNews.
Neverthless, Cher coded.