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My guess is that this has much to do with how much they get out of Africa. It seems like they don't see the benefit of funding those conferences. About LBGTQ

My guess is that this has much to do with how much they get out of Africa. It seems like they don't see the benefit of funding those conferences. About LBGTQ This looks to me like the Western behaviour where they sanction the whole country to death because they don't agree with policies of people in power. I am an African. And I live in a country where such laws targeting LGBTQ has been enacted. FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Those leading the making of laws and noise making are just populists after their bread. [These are facts, hoping they still matter] If you feel so strong about attending the conference, no one is going to ask your sexual orientation at the airport. Tourists are coming in everyday. Qatar has just hosted the world cup, how many LGBTQ people were jailed? If you don't feel safe, just skip the conference or attend online. You know very well that coders are among the most reserved people on earth, why punish them for their government rules? I hate posturing. I thought this kind of behaviour is to be left to politicians and 'national security' advisers. Will the world ever go back to reality?

isodev 3y ago
[flagged]
- kabanda1 3y ago
  If a Muslim sympathetic to Palestinians go to Germany today, they will not declare it at the airport or in a coffee shop.
  - mousetree 3y ago
    Unless that coffeeshop is in Sonnenallee
  - johannes1234321 3y ago
    While stating it at either won't give you any serious trouble. Depending on where you state that, in what social situation, you might get all sorts of reactions, from antisemic support, to more nuanced support or rejection, but you won't lose your job, won't be injailed, aren't threatened by death penalty or any form of violence (while amount of violence against Jews, by some subcultures, is rising ...) And yes, political figures like Greta Thunberg are criticized for their statements. But a) it's a political statement by some political figure and b) there aren't threats but newspapers etc. dismissing the statements in articles. Which again is very different from the threats towards gays in different regions of the world.
- Longhanks 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - isodev 3y ago
    You for real? I invite you to try (for one day) to not let anyone discover your gender assigned at birth or your skin colour or let’s make it really easy - hide that you’re left handed or right handed. It’s a life or death situation - game over if anyone finds out. And of course, while suppressing all that, don’t forget to enjoy local “hospitality”, the Python event - networking, creativity, conversing with your peers, learning and exchanging ideas.
  - ttyprintk 3y ago
    It’s about this statement: > no one is going to ask your sexual orientation at the airport This is not ensured, even if the Tanzanian people are themselves renown for their hospitality.
    - Longhanks 3y ago
      And if a stranger asks you "have you ever consumed any drugs" you also just cannot help it and make a list of any and all abuse you might have participated in at the other end of the world? Is reality really that hard for some people? I geniunely don't understand how navigating society can be so difficult?
      - asylteltine 3y ago
        Some people are so used to their western privilege they can’t fathom the idea of a culture not accepting things like being gay. It’s really not hard
        pierat 3y ago
        Privilege? No, most African and Middle Eastern governments just have shitty governments based on an even worse religion. At least Western governments have the idea of Universal Human Rights ( https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-huma... ) And being 'accepted' or not is wholly different than 'executed' or 'jailed for life'. And for me, it's simple: don't go to most of Africa or anywhere in the Middle East. They're shitholes not worthy of my money or my presence.
bakugo 3y ago
[flagged]
zartusht 3y ago
[flagged]
- _cenw 3y ago
  Reductive to pretend this boils down to "don't do events where bad politics" when we're talking about participant safety. The entirety of the US would get a lifetime ban if we did that.
  - lozenge 3y ago
    The point is there is no standard that is applied evenly. If there was then the funding would have been quickly denied with a documented reason attached. Stalling something which is going to get approved is just vindictiveness and collective punishment. Have you not heard what it's like for an Arab or Muslim going through Israeli airports? Sure, they'll be detained and deported at most, but that's enough to exclude the idea of visiting to give a conference talk.
    - _cenw 3y ago
      They're still not the same thing. TSA and Israeli customs might suck, but at worst you get turned around. You manage to get past, let's say, Saudi customs as a trans person, get ready for jail time for the crime of existing. Not comparable.
      - lozenge 3y ago
        [flagged]
        dijit 3y ago
        [flagged]
        _cenw 3y ago
        kind of missing the point, when it's not explicitly about citizens, the entire argument breaks apart especially if you consider west bank residents as potential speakers. > as inalienable or difficult to hide as [...] biological sex in case you extrapolated from my comment: i'm me, but other people are other people, and "the cis" can, in fact, not always tell. not even usually.
mrweasel 3y ago
Looking at the map of the "LGBT rights by country or territory"[0] it is also not clear to me where people would suggest that the conferences be held. Zanzibar seems like one of the few places that would work, along with Botswana, and a few others. Some of the other countries that might work have completely different safety issue, regardless of your sexual orientation. I think realistically, someone has the well meant opinion that these conferences should only be held in places where everyone can feel completely safe, and then just completely ignores reality. The unfortunate result is an effectual ban on any meetings in places like Africa or the Middle East, which is equally unreasonable and excluding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_terr...
- IAmLiterallyAB 3y ago
  Based on that map, South Africa would seem to be the best choice
  - doix 3y ago
    South Africa is great except they have rolling blackouts(load shedding) and can be somewhat unsafe. Don't get me wrong, I was there for 3 months and didn't experience any problems, except one time when I was parking at an almost empty beach and my car didn't lock when I pushed the button on the remote. But I could definitely see a bunch of less savvy folks coming in with a bunch of apple goods, flashing them openly in the wrong place and something bad happening. The rolling blackouts would also probably be pretty annoying though.
  - nomdep 3y ago
    [flagged]
- nomdep 3y ago
  I don't think is unreasonable at all. Anyone can do a conference wherever, the PSF just don't want to sponsor conferences in places under those conditions
  - 3y ago
Ralfp 3y ago
> If you don't feel safe, just skip the conference or attend online. Well, PSF is not feeling safe about the conference and are skipping it.
- kabanda1 3y ago
  Very well. Just give people a reason and they move on. We wouldn't be here today
- ExoticPearTree 3y ago
  If that was the case, they could have said no 5 months ago and the organizers would have had time to find alternate funding or do the conference online. Stonewalling people for a few months just because you can is a dick move.
stuckinhell 3y ago
> will the world ever go back to reality ? Probably not, identity groups all over the world have been brought into direct conflict over limited resources thanks to new communications technology shrinking the world. LGBTQ is a very powerful political movement in America.
_cenw 3y ago
> This looks to me like the Western behaviour where they sanction the whole country to death because they don't agree with policies of people in power. If your policies put people at risk, limit to participation is a natural consequence. There is no conspiracy here. >I am an African. And I live in a country where such laws targeting LGBTQ has been enacted. FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Those leading the making of laws and noise making are just populists after their bread. [These are facts, hoping they still matter] >If you feel so strong about attending the conference, no one is going to ask your sexual orientation at the airport. Tourists are coming in everyday. Qatar has just hosted the world cup, how many LGBTQ people were jailed? If you don't feel safe, just skip the conference or attend online. Bullshit. You are asking people to be invisible, when that's not practical or possible a lot of the time. You are just saying people wouldn't be offended if they don't have the information to be offended. That is not remotely the same as safety. Case in point: I'm visibly trans, I don't have a toggle for my appearance. I'd be turned around the border in most gulf states. Also, Quatar used the World Cup to crack down on their domestic gay population by (yes this is real) catfishing them, posing as foreigners looking to hook up. So to answer your question: A whole lot of them got jailed.
- ploum 3y ago
  You are perfectly right that asking people to not care about the laws of a country is problematic. For personal safety and also as a moral stand point. But that should not be a reason to not fund conferences in those countries, conferences which are a way to learn, to discover new things. What do you think about conferences organizers, of every country, having to put on their website a little explanation of the laws of their country. Each explanation would be something: "In our country, the law forbid XXX. We are very sorry for the people concerned by this law and we are sad about those laws. We would ensure that the conference space is a safe space but they should be aware of those rules still apply in the whole country. In every case, always choose safety. We are missing you, we hope to have the chance to meet you in another time.". I feel like installing a tradition of such a disclaimer for every tech conference in the world would: 1. Force people to acknowledge issues in their own country (instead of minimizing them). And I guess every country has its own problem. 2. Show support for the victims of those laws and, indirectly, showing supports for the victims in their own country 3. Advance the cause, change mentality. It forces locals and politicians to be confronted with the fact that international visitors (which every country is trying to attract) may disagree to the point of not coming to the conference. 4. It would be nearly risk-free for conference organizer as it could also be defended as a polite way to ask attendees to respect the law.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
melagonster 3y ago
>You know very well that coders are among the most reserved people on earth. Do not free/open source software activity or geek culture feel like more close to leftwing? p.s., this comment doesn't try to refute you.
- _lvbh 3y ago
  I think they meant reserved as in introverted rather than conservative.
  - melagonster 3y ago
    this make sense, my fault haha.
- znpy 3y ago
  It looks like that from outside but it really isn’t. Stallman fir example was very clear about free software having nothing to do with communism, but of course people take just what they want from facts and ignore what they don’t want/like. But, as i grow older, i realise itself not just software and it, it’s like that in most things.
  - melagonster 3y ago
    I know free software is not communism, but leftwing do not represent communism, too. maybe I should not use the word "leftwing" here? like "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace", I always think geeks toward to change society with new technologies in past stories.
cjfd 3y ago
"sanction the whole country to death because they don't agree with policies of people in power." 'Sanctioning to death' is perhaps not reasonable but, still, there should be standards for dealing with countries. Let us consider a different example. Without standards you end up with buying cheap goods made by children who work 12 hours a day on Saturday combined with driving your own child to violin lessons on Sunday. Not to mention that the children who work 12 hours a day are competing with properly paid adults in other countries. To get back to LGBTQ rights, there also should be some standards. The standards should perhaps not be as high as western nations would like but they should exclude the worst places in the world. The story sounds like the PSF had at the time not yet decided what standards should be in place for subsidizing conferences. They should correct this omission because keeping a conference organization with this kind of uncertainty is not good.
- AshamedCaptain 3y ago
  "And why do you feel so strong about these policies? It's not like they're going to ask if you are a children when you arrive at the airport." Just to also point how the grandparent comment's remark kind of misses the point.
brodouevencode 3y ago
The posturing over sexual preference is completely a passive aggressive white western phenomenon whose proponents insist on projecting to other groups whether they are willing to accept the dogma or not or whether they care or not, but simultaneously exclaim the evils of colonialism while not saying a word about your country in public because you're not white. There's an image they have to uphold.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  One also assumes that the PSF will be similarly reluctant to sponsor a conference in Orlando/Miami, or Memphis/Nashville, given Florida and Tennessee's rankings as two of the worst states in the country for LGTBQ persons...
  - brodouevencode 3y ago
    I frequent both of those states and it's the same as kabanda1's point: no one cares. There are plenty of LGTBQ people in both, particularly in Nashville, Orlando, Palm Beach, Hollywood (FL), Knoxville, and Miami.
bitcurious 3y ago
> FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Those leading the making of laws and noise making are just populists after their bread. How do you reconcile these two statements? Populists by definition appeal to public sentiment, to the detriment of principals or morality. If no one cares, why are they wasting their time? It's like the old joke "no one goes there, it's too crowded."
- kabanda1 3y ago
  Maybe a wrong word to use. But politicians claim to be representing the people's voice in ceating those laws is not entirely correct. In most African countries, people are still uncomfortable with LGBTQ, and the general show of love in public but not hostile to the extent of enacted laws Remember most LGBTQ activism is sponsored by the west, so politicians use that to heat up the population about family, bill gates, blah, blah, that's where I used the word populism.
  - _cenw 3y ago
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    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - oppoppi 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - _cenw 3y ago
        [flagged]
        oppoppi 3y ago
        [flagged]
braza 3y ago
> You know very well that coders are among the most reserved people on earth, why punish them for their government rules? I'm more or less on the same camp, but I am not African I come from another similar challenging demographic for the mainstream axis of tech (USA and Europe) and I'm reflecting a lot about it and I think we're going back to the "equal but separate" world in tech. One thing that you should keep in mind is that a lot of folks within PSF have some pressures regarding optics and at the end of the day they are on the hook in their local conferences, companies, and local meetups, even if they personally do not believe in those restrictions. At the time that I had the same issues at some local/national conference for other "X software foundation" the concrete action that we took was to de-risk and get local companies on board, individuals, and move forward. I do not want to sound cynical, but I think those folks should get rid of PSF baggage and its "control by money", high horse cultural posturing, the politics and start small without all this.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
throwaway16399 3y ago
> I am an African. And I live in a country where such laws targeting LGBTQ has been enacted. FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Counterpoint (quotes from Wikipedia about Tanzania, where the conference was held): > 95 percent of Tanzanian residents believed that homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept [2007 survey] > same-sex sexual acts (even in private and consensual) are criminal offences, punishable with life imprisonment > On June 19, [2013] Human Rights Watch and the Wake Up and Step Forward Coalition released a report including several detailed allegations of torture and abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals while in police custody. > In 2018, a so-called "witch hunt" was declared against gay people in Dar es Salaam, where gay men were forced to endure anal examinations and torture.

isodev 3y ago

[flagged]

kabanda1 3y ago
If a Muslim sympathetic to Palestinians go to Germany today, they will not declare it at the airport or in a coffee shop.
- mousetree 3y ago
  Unless that coffeeshop is in Sonnenallee
- johannes1234321 3y ago
  While stating it at either won't give you any serious trouble. Depending on where you state that, in what social situation, you might get all sorts of reactions, from antisemic support, to more nuanced support or rejection, but you won't lose your job, won't be injailed, aren't threatened by death penalty or any form of violence (while amount of violence against Jews, by some subcultures, is rising ...) And yes, political figures like Greta Thunberg are criticized for their statements. But a) it's a political statement by some political figure and b) there aren't threats but newspapers etc. dismissing the statements in articles. Which again is very different from the threats towards gays in different regions of the world.
Longhanks 3y ago
[flagged]
- isodev 3y ago
  You for real? I invite you to try (for one day) to not let anyone discover your gender assigned at birth or your skin colour or let’s make it really easy - hide that you’re left handed or right handed. It’s a life or death situation - game over if anyone finds out. And of course, while suppressing all that, don’t forget to enjoy local “hospitality”, the Python event - networking, creativity, conversing with your peers, learning and exchanging ideas.
- ttyprintk 3y ago
  It’s about this statement: > no one is going to ask your sexual orientation at the airport This is not ensured, even if the Tanzanian people are themselves renown for their hospitality.
  - Longhanks 3y ago
    And if a stranger asks you "have you ever consumed any drugs" you also just cannot help it and make a list of any and all abuse you might have participated in at the other end of the world? Is reality really that hard for some people? I geniunely don't understand how navigating society can be so difficult?
    - asylteltine 3y ago
      Some people are so used to their western privilege they can’t fathom the idea of a culture not accepting things like being gay. It’s really not hard
      - pierat 3y ago
        Privilege? No, most African and Middle Eastern governments just have shitty governments based on an even worse religion. At least Western governments have the idea of Universal Human Rights ( https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-huma... ) And being 'accepted' or not is wholly different than 'executed' or 'jailed for life'. And for me, it's simple: don't go to most of Africa or anywhere in the Middle East. They're shitholes not worthy of my money or my presence.

bakugo 3y ago

[flagged]

zartusht 3y ago

[flagged]

_cenw 3y ago
Reductive to pretend this boils down to "don't do events where bad politics" when we're talking about participant safety. The entirety of the US would get a lifetime ban if we did that.
- lozenge 3y ago
  The point is there is no standard that is applied evenly. If there was then the funding would have been quickly denied with a documented reason attached. Stalling something which is going to get approved is just vindictiveness and collective punishment. Have you not heard what it's like for an Arab or Muslim going through Israeli airports? Sure, they'll be detained and deported at most, but that's enough to exclude the idea of visiting to give a conference talk.
  - _cenw 3y ago
    They're still not the same thing. TSA and Israeli customs might suck, but at worst you get turned around. You manage to get past, let's say, Saudi customs as a trans person, get ready for jail time for the crime of existing. Not comparable.
    - lozenge 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - dijit 3y ago
        [flagged]
        _cenw 3y ago
        kind of missing the point, when it's not explicitly about citizens, the entire argument breaks apart especially if you consider west bank residents as potential speakers. > as inalienable or difficult to hide as [...] biological sex in case you extrapolated from my comment: i'm me, but other people are other people, and "the cis" can, in fact, not always tell. not even usually.

mrweasel 3y ago

Looking at the map of the "LGBT rights by country or territory"[0] it is also not clear to me where people would suggest that the conferences be held. Zanzibar seems like one of the few places that would work, along with Botswana, and a few others. Some of the other countries that might work have completely different safety issue, regardless of your sexual orientation. I think realistically, someone has the well meant opinion that these conferences should only be held in places where everyone can feel completely safe, and then just completely ignores reality. The unfortunate result is an effectual ban on any meetings in places like Africa or the Middle East, which is equally unreasonable and excluding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_terr...

IAmLiterallyAB 3y ago
Based on that map, South Africa would seem to be the best choice
- doix 3y ago
  South Africa is great except they have rolling blackouts(load shedding) and can be somewhat unsafe. Don't get me wrong, I was there for 3 months and didn't experience any problems, except one time when I was parking at an almost empty beach and my car didn't lock when I pushed the button on the remote. But I could definitely see a bunch of less savvy folks coming in with a bunch of apple goods, flashing them openly in the wrong place and something bad happening. The rolling blackouts would also probably be pretty annoying though.
- nomdep 3y ago
  [flagged]
nomdep 3y ago
I don't think is unreasonable at all. Anyone can do a conference wherever, the PSF just don't want to sponsor conferences in places under those conditions
- 3y ago

Ralfp 3y ago

> If you don't feel safe, just skip the conference or attend online. Well, PSF is not feeling safe about the conference and are skipping it.

kabanda1 3y ago
Very well. Just give people a reason and they move on. We wouldn't be here today
ExoticPearTree 3y ago
If that was the case, they could have said no 5 months ago and the organizers would have had time to find alternate funding or do the conference online. Stonewalling people for a few months just because you can is a dick move.

stuckinhell 3y ago

> will the world ever go back to reality ? Probably not, identity groups all over the world have been brought into direct conflict over limited resources thanks to new communications technology shrinking the world. LGBTQ is a very powerful political movement in America.

_cenw 3y ago

> This looks to me like the Western behaviour where they sanction the whole country to death because they don't agree with policies of people in power. If your policies put people at risk, limit to participation is a natural consequence. There is no conspiracy here. >I am an African. And I live in a country where such laws targeting LGBTQ has been enacted. FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Those leading the making of laws and noise making are just populists after their bread. [These are facts, hoping they still matter] >If you feel so strong about attending the conference, no one is going to ask your sexual orientation at the airport. Tourists are coming in everyday. Qatar has just hosted the world cup, how many LGBTQ people were jailed? If you don't feel safe, just skip the conference or attend online. Bullshit. You are asking people to be invisible, when that's not practical or possible a lot of the time. You are just saying people wouldn't be offended if they don't have the information to be offended. That is not remotely the same as safety. Case in point: I'm visibly trans, I don't have a toggle for my appearance. I'd be turned around the border in most gulf states. Also, Quatar used the World Cup to crack down on their domestic gay population by (yes this is real) catfishing them, posing as foreigners looking to hook up. So to answer your question: A whole lot of them got jailed.

ploum 3y ago
You are perfectly right that asking people to not care about the laws of a country is problematic. For personal safety and also as a moral stand point. But that should not be a reason to not fund conferences in those countries, conferences which are a way to learn, to discover new things. What do you think about conferences organizers, of every country, having to put on their website a little explanation of the laws of their country. Each explanation would be something: "In our country, the law forbid XXX. We are very sorry for the people concerned by this law and we are sad about those laws. We would ensure that the conference space is a safe space but they should be aware of those rules still apply in the whole country. In every case, always choose safety. We are missing you, we hope to have the chance to meet you in another time.". I feel like installing a tradition of such a disclaimer for every tech conference in the world would: 1. Force people to acknowledge issues in their own country (instead of minimizing them). And I guess every country has its own problem. 2. Show support for the victims of those laws and, indirectly, showing supports for the victims in their own country 3. Advance the cause, change mentality. It forces locals and politicians to be confronted with the fact that international visitors (which every country is trying to attract) may disagree to the point of not coming to the conference. 4. It would be nearly risk-free for conference organizer as it could also be defended as a polite way to ask attendees to respect the law.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

melagonster 3y ago

>You know very well that coders are among the most reserved people on earth. Do not free/open source software activity or geek culture feel like more close to leftwing? p.s., this comment doesn't try to refute you.

_lvbh 3y ago
I think they meant reserved as in introverted rather than conservative.
- melagonster 3y ago
  this make sense, my fault haha.
znpy 3y ago
It looks like that from outside but it really isn’t. Stallman fir example was very clear about free software having nothing to do with communism, but of course people take just what they want from facts and ignore what they don’t want/like. But, as i grow older, i realise itself not just software and it, it’s like that in most things.
- melagonster 3y ago
  I know free software is not communism, but leftwing do not represent communism, too. maybe I should not use the word "leftwing" here? like "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace", I always think geeks toward to change society with new technologies in past stories.

cjfd 3y ago

"sanction the whole country to death because they don't agree with policies of people in power." 'Sanctioning to death' is perhaps not reasonable but, still, there should be standards for dealing with countries. Let us consider a different example. Without standards you end up with buying cheap goods made by children who work 12 hours a day on Saturday combined with driving your own child to violin lessons on Sunday. Not to mention that the children who work 12 hours a day are competing with properly paid adults in other countries. To get back to LGBTQ rights, there also should be some standards. The standards should perhaps not be as high as western nations would like but they should exclude the worst places in the world. The story sounds like the PSF had at the time not yet decided what standards should be in place for subsidizing conferences. They should correct this omission because keeping a conference organization with this kind of uncertainty is not good.

AshamedCaptain 3y ago
"And why do you feel so strong about these policies? It's not like they're going to ask if you are a children when you arrive at the airport." Just to also point how the grandparent comment's remark kind of misses the point.

brodouevencode 3y ago

The posturing over sexual preference is completely a passive aggressive white western phenomenon whose proponents insist on projecting to other groups whether they are willing to accept the dogma or not or whether they care or not, but simultaneously exclaim the evils of colonialism while not saying a word about your country in public because you're not white. There's an image they have to uphold.

FireBeyond 3y ago
One also assumes that the PSF will be similarly reluctant to sponsor a conference in Orlando/Miami, or Memphis/Nashville, given Florida and Tennessee's rankings as two of the worst states in the country for LGTBQ persons...
- brodouevencode 3y ago
  I frequent both of those states and it's the same as kabanda1's point: no one cares. There are plenty of LGTBQ people in both, particularly in Nashville, Orlando, Palm Beach, Hollywood (FL), Knoxville, and Miami.

bitcurious 3y ago

> FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Those leading the making of laws and noise making are just populists after their bread. How do you reconcile these two statements? Populists by definition appeal to public sentiment, to the detriment of principals or morality. If no one cares, why are they wasting their time? It's like the old joke "no one goes there, it's too crowded."

kabanda1 3y ago
Maybe a wrong word to use. But politicians claim to be representing the people's voice in ceating those laws is not entirely correct. In most African countries, people are still uncomfortable with LGBTQ, and the general show of love in public but not hostile to the extent of enacted laws Remember most LGBTQ activism is sponsored by the west, so politicians use that to heat up the population about family, bill gates, blah, blah, that's where I used the word populism.
- _cenw 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - oppoppi 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - _cenw 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - oppoppi 3y ago
        [flagged]

braza 3y ago

> You know very well that coders are among the most reserved people on earth, why punish them for their government rules? I'm more or less on the same camp, but I am not African I come from another similar challenging demographic for the mainstream axis of tech (USA and Europe) and I'm reflecting a lot about it and I think we're going back to the "equal but separate" world in tech. One thing that you should keep in mind is that a lot of folks within PSF have some pressures regarding optics and at the end of the day they are on the hook in their local conferences, companies, and local meetups, even if they personally do not believe in those restrictions. At the time that I had the same issues at some local/national conference for other "X software foundation" the concrete action that we took was to de-risk and get local companies on board, individuals, and move forward. I do not want to sound cynical, but I think those folks should get rid of PSF baggage and its "control by money", high horse cultural posturing, the politics and start small without all this.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

throwaway16399 3y ago

> I am an African. And I live in a country where such laws targeting LGBTQ has been enacted. FYI, Most people here have no idea what LGBTQ means and those who do don't give a damn. Counterpoint (quotes from Wikipedia about Tanzania, where the conference was held): > 95 percent of Tanzanian residents believed that homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept [2007 survey] > same-sex sexual acts (even in private and consensual) are criminal offences, punishable with life imprisonment > On June 19, [2013] Human Rights Watch and the Wake Up and Step Forward Coalition released a report including several detailed allegations of torture and abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals while in police custody. > In 2018, a so-called "witch hunt" was declared against gay people in Dar es Salaam, where gay men were forced to endure anal examinations and torture.