[Foundation-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

David Strauss david at fourkitchens.com
Fri Oct 12 07:30:51 UTC 2007


Ray Saintonge wrote:
> Mark Williamson wrote:
>> Can you guarantee the safety of a male-to-female pre-op transsexual in
>> Alexandria or Cairo?
> Do you have any data about the number who would otherwise want to attend 
> Wikimania at an equivalent distance from home and expense?  ... or is 
> this just a made-up problem?

It's quite demeaning to ask people who face discrimination to stand up
and be counted. It's objectifying, and it's not acceptable to allow
discrimination even in the presumed absence of the target group. Often,
a target group will silently watch and exclude itself once it discovers
that the reluctance to accommodate its needs is being discussed.

For example, someone might object to having a Confederate flag at a
party. If the response is asking, "Are there going to be black people?"
then it's more likely that black people considering coming to the party
will simply not come rather than object and come to an event where their
interests are clearly second-class.

It's probably clear by this point that I'm not a utilitarian. :-)

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 186 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/attachments/20071012/16595f31/attachment.pgp 


More information about the foundation-l mailing list