Putting people at ease around you (especially customers) is a critical entrepreneurial skill.
You can't blame people for being cautious when a lot of people are buying into victim-narratives and convinced to act against their "oppressors".
I do not exaggerate when I say that the amount of meaningful advice I've been given since I adopted this technique has increased 5x.
Another perk--due to my vocal policy on this, I had an autistic colleague tell me that I'm the only woman he feels comfortable working with. He struggles to read social situations, and he frets that women will interpret his bluntness as him being dismissive or "mansplaining." It made me very sad to think he's missing out on good relationships with so many talented women in our office, just because of this environment of fear. But he's a wonderful friend and colleague, and I am so happy to have his advice and support.
If the issue being debated here is an actual problem in (American?) tech business culture, the attitudes and principles that GP commenter is describing are a great step towards solving it. Deep-seated mistrust in the motivations and intentions of others are at the root of the problem, and the road to exacerbating it is paved with bad-faith-assuming hypotheticals.