You may be interested in reading more about the Title VII protections in US civil rights law.

If PyCon were a workplace that was large enough to be under Title VII, then a truthful complaint about sexual harassment is given extra protection. For example, a company cannot retaliate due to a complaint, including by using an otherwise valid justification as pretext for a . The complaint may be made in public, and the complainant may picket, talk with important customers, newspaper reporters, etc.. The person who makes the complaint does not need to be the person affected by the sexual harassment or other forms of discrimination under Title VII, and for sexual harassment there does not even need to be a component of sexual desire. This is confirmed by the courts, up even to multiple Supreme Court cases.

This has nothing to do with creating 'a "kinder, gentler" atmosphere appropriate for delicate-minded women-folk.' It has to do with exercising civil right protections that people already have at most companies. These same civil rights laws apply to men. You might read about Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. I'll quote from the Supreme Court's decision:

> In late October 1991, Oncale was working for respondent Sundowner Offshore Services on a Chevron U.S. A., Inc., oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. ... On several occasions, Oncale was forcibly subjected to sex-related, humiliating actions against him by Lyons, Pippen and Johnson in the presence of the rest of the crew. Pippen and Lyons also physically assulted Oncale in a sexual manner, and Lyons threatened him with rape.

> Oncale’s complaints to supervisory personnel produced no remedial action; in fact, the company’s Safety Compliance Clerk, Valent Hohen, told Oncale that Lyons and Pippen “picked [on] him all the time too,” and called him a name suggesting homosexuality. Id., at 77. Oncale eventually quit–asking that his pink slip reflect that he “voluntarily left due to sexual harassment and verbal abuse.” Id., at 79. When asked at his deposition why he left Sundowner, Oncale stated “I felt that if I didn’t leave my job, that I would be raped or forced to have sex.” Id., at 71.

The law that keeps you from being in a workplace where others can threaten you with rape is the same law that lets others, women and men, speak out about possible sexual harassment in the workplace. Including, yes, even complaining about sexual jokes.

You think it's to do with "offense", but the law and the courts are clear that "Title VII . . . does not set forth a general civility code for the American workplace." Instead, "a plaintiff must show that a rational jury could find that the workplace [was] permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult, that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment." The Supreme Court has instructed that courts judging hostility should "filter out complaints attacking the ordinary tribulations of the workplace, such as the sporadic use of age-related jokes, and occasional teasing". The easiest way for a company to comply is to set a very low threshold for reporting a possible incident, and let the EEOC compliance person investigate and develop an appropriate remedy, if needed.

PyCon isn't a Title VII workplace, and there are difficulties in mapping EEOC guidelines to a conference environment, but I believe the conference should still be guided by the same moral basis as the civil rights laws. Unless you think it's okay for your workplace to allow your co-workers to subject you to "sex-related, humiliating actions", then you should defend those same moral principles and stop thinking that the debate includes a request for a right to not be offended.

Even using your "laser-like" focus metaphor, you shouldn't have all of your lasers pointed in the same direction. Problems come from all directions, and different people should and do focus on the problems that most interest and/or affect them.