There are two aspects in this situation. We have the law and we have the enforcement. We know that most of ME countries have laws against LGBT people and actively enforce it but for example in India even though there is a law but it's not being enforced. On the other hand in North Carolina (and lots of red states) we have the bathroom bill but not really enforced (Imagine a policeman standing in every bathroom checking people's IDs) *but *if police sees a trans person walking down the street they might arrest him/her because of other reasons such as not having prescription of hormone drugs (See the video) so they are enforcing an unwritten law which is crazy and making the situation more complex.
The committee needs to take this into consideration.
Best
On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 10:34 PM Pax Ahimsa Gethen < list-wikimedia@funcrunch.org> wrote:
Agreed, that link is just a broad overview. There are many other pages that drill down to specific laws and policies of regions and cities that affect the safety of LGBT+ people. From Amir Ladsgroup's reply it does sound like the Wikimania committee is aware of these issues and taking them seriously. Hopefully all conference and meetup planners will do the same.
- Pax
On 10/16/16 11:45 AM, Ilario Valdelli wrote:
Hi, I suppose that it should be a group of people to give relevant reasons and to be more proactive when selecting a bid mainly if connected with a poor respect of rights or with the safety of some specific diversities.
The link you give is more related to the rights than to the safety of people. In my opinion is incomplete. For instance North Carolina is not mentioned and looking at your link I would suppose that the whole USA is a safety place.
I would suggest to your group/you to list places where your life can be at risk, places where diversities like LGBT are not accepted, and safety countries or towns. Afterwards to push it as important aspect/policy to consider when selecting a town for a conference within Wikimania community.
This may help a lot and may give more useful and transparent material to the selection committee of Wiki conferences (because I have understood that your reasons would include the selection not only of Wikimania).
Kind regards
On 16.10.2016 19:20, Pax Ahimsa Gethen wrote:
Thanks Anna. I forgot to include this relevant link (which I also posted in the Facebook discussion):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory
- Pax
On 10/16/16 10:14 AM, Anna Stillwell wrote:
These are lovely suggestions / requests. Thank you for raising them. I'm happy to hear of your positive experience at WikiConference.
+1 /a
On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:10 AM, Pax Ahimsa Gethen < list-wikimedia@funcrunch.org> wrote:
Hello all. I had a positive experience at WikiConference North America last weekend, where I gave a talk on transgender issues and Wikipedia.[1] I'm posting because there's an active discussion in Wikipedia Weekly on Facebook about choosing a host country for Wikimania 2018.[2] I am concerned that some of the suggestions are not taking into account the safety of LGBT+ people; not just those attending the conference, but also those living in the host country.
As a queer trans atheist in a same-sex marriage, there are a number of places where I am considered a criminal for just existing or going about my daily routine. This applies to some parts of the U.S. as well, by the way; I won't be visiting North Carolina as long as it's illegal for me to use the men's restroom there. Please keep these considerations in mind when planning meetups and conferences. Thank you.
- Pax aka Funcrunch
[1] http://funcrunch.org/blog/2016/10/12/making-connections-at- wikiconference-north-america/
[2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediaweekly/permalink/ 1114259788621851/
-- Pax Ahimsa Gethen | http://funcrunch.org
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