I can't speak for other people, and I'm sure there are a wide variety of opinions people have about that situation. But I very much doubt this is about speaking-as-in-speaking about functional programming. After all, he can write about functional programming as much as he likes, and I haven't heard anybody suggest that his blog be blocked.

But speaking as in giving a conference talk is a different matter.

Conference talks aren't really about disseminating technical material. They're terrible for that! Conference talks are showmanship, entertainment, motivational speaking, and most crucially, they are cultural signals about what--and whom--is important.

That's why there is a vastly different dynamic of attending a talk in person vs. watching one remotely or on video. You are absorbing the social cues everyone else in the room is transmitting.

So when a conference announces that so-and-so is keynoting, they are announcing that the topic of the keynote is important, and they are also announcing that so-and-so is important, and traditionally, that they are the _most important_.

One rung down is speaking. Announcing that so-and-so is speaking is also announcing that so-and-so's topic is important, and that so-and-so is important in their own right.

My guess is that what this debate is really about is signaling that this individual is important in the community. Which is not, and never will be, completely divorced from all of this individuals choices.

From my reading of LambdaConf's statements, they fully realize this. They are making a political statement about what and who is important, and how the community should judge someone's importance. Likewise, the people who disagree are making a political statement about who should be judged important in the community.

tl;dr: This is not about whether somebody can speak as in communicate, it is about whether they should be judged important. And those people who disagree with LambdaConf's choice in this matter are refusing to implicitly support LambdaConf's chocie with their attendance, not to mention communicating their own opinions, as this individual has done.

Given that the individual, LambdaConf, these signatories, and even you and I have been able to write about this at length without censorship, I'd say that nobody's right to "speak" has been curtailed in any way.