IMO, to regain control of our public image, I think we have to take some explicit and public steps to disassociate the GNU project from RMS's comments.
RMS's comments are unrelated to the GNU project and everyone in the GNU project is be allowed to their personal opinions, that you are promulgating a lie of what RMS never said doesn't help. My perspective is that the GNU project's mission is to produce high-quality software that is free for everyone to use, and we should welcome contributions from anyone who wants to support that mission. We certainly should not make affirming support for RMS's non-free-software-related beliefs necessary for people to contribute to the GNU project, or to take a GNU maintainer/leadership role. Nor should there be any kind of personal loyalty oath to RMS involved in being a GNU contributor or maintainer. What is being suggested sadly, is the opposite -- that people have to take a loyalty pledge to contribute or become maintainers.
