Archive for LGBT rights
total respect!
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags abortion rights, Jacinda Ardern, Labour, LGBT rights, Murupara, New Zealand, politics on January 21, 2023 by xi'ancontent which deviates from the norm [from Pest county]
Posted in Statistics with tags Bedtime, Budapest, censorship, children books, discrimination, European Commission, European Parliament, homophobia, Hungary, Líra Könyv, LGBT rights, Not Playtime!, Russia, The Guardian on July 26, 2021 by xi'anNeurIPS without visa
Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Addis Abeba, Africa, Canada, conferences, Ethiopia, ethiopian food, Human Rights, LGBT rights, lottery, NeurIPS, Synced, USA, Vancouver, visa on September 22, 2019 by xi'an
I came by chance upon this 2018 entry in Synced that NeurIPS now takes place in Canada between Montréal and Vancouver primarily because visas to Canada are easier to get than visas to the USA, even though some researchers still get difficulties in securing theirs. Especially researchers from some African countries, which is exposed in the article as one of the reasons the next ICLR takes place in Addis Ababa. Which I wish I could attend! In the meanwhile, I will be taking part in an ABC workshop in Vancouver, December 08, prior to NeurIPS 2019, before visiting the Department of Statistics at UBC the day after. (My previous visit there was in 1990, I believe!) Incidentally but interestingly, the lottery entries for NeurIPS 2019 are open till September 25, to the public (those not contributing to the conference or any of its affiliated groups). This is certainly better than having bots buying all entries within 12 minutes of the opening time!
More globally, this entry makes me wonder how learned societies could invest in ensuring locations for their (international) meetings allow for a maximum inclusion in terms of these visa difficulties, but also ensuring freedom and safety for all members. Which may prove a de facto impossibility. For instance, Ethiopia has a rather poor record in terms of human rights and, in particular, homosexuality is criminalised there. An alternative would be to hold the conferences in parallel locations chosen to multiply the chances for this inclusion, but this could prove counter-productive [for inclusion] by creating groups that would never ever meet. An insolvable conundrum?
freedom to discriminate???
Posted in Statistics with tags Australia, blasphemy law, democracy index, discrimination, LGBT rights, Manif pour tous, religious freedom on November 18, 2018 by xi'an“Gay students and teachers could be rejected by religious schools under changes to anti-discrimination laws being recommended by a federal review into religious freedom.” The Guardian, 9 Oct. 2018
The quote is not speaking of one of the 72 countries in the World where homosexuality is considered a crime (with 13 states applying the death penalty), but of Australia, ranked 8th on the Economist 2017 Democracy Index, where religious freedom arguments are legally recognised as a right to discriminate against homosexual students and staff. (As an aside, Australia still has a blasphemy law.)
“While the panel accepted the right of religious school to discriminate against students on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, it could see no justification for a school to discriminate on the basis of race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 Oct. 2018
I find it flabbergasting that such newspeak inversions (also found in the French “Manif pour tous” slogans turning égalité into a discrimination argument against homosexual weddings and adoptions) can find their way into a legislative text. And more generally that religions can still continue to promote gender discrimination with no consequences.