The Open Source community has been through some interesting times over the last five years. COVID19 created a situation where many of our community who were at greater risk of its effects were effectively denied access to in person events. The community did a lot, frankly not enough at times, to facilitate access with things like mask mandates, remote participation etc. Now, we find another barrier to participation – extreme politics.
Last night, Marco Rubio announced a policy to permanently ban athletes who are trans from receiving a visa into the US. However, the announcement (attached) is, as Erin Reed points out, far more general than specifically athletes. This could absolutely apply to anyone who is trans entering the country.
The problem here is that, should an official suspect that your sex marker, perfectly legally recorded in your passport in your own country, does not match their perceived understanding of your sex at birth, they can deny your visa and make a permanent record to never issue you a visa in the future.
Well, that could not only affect your chances of ever visiting the US again, it could affect entering other countries, too, as many share this information.
This all makes visiting the US simply too high a risk for at least the next four years.
So what does this have to do with OSS? Well, I have already had a number of people asking me if I will be attending DrupalCon Atlanta this year and the only answer I can give them is No. I just can't - it's too dangerous for me, being trans.
But this will go on for another four years. Am I going to be denied participation in an event that is important to me for all that time? To catch up with people that are important to me?
I'm not the only person in this position, either. There's a lot of us. A lot.
Is it time for events, like DrupalCon North America to remember there are 23 countries in North America and take this opportunity to finally visit one other that the US?
I think it is. To be inclusive, it has to.
Comments3
It really sucks you have to…
It really sucks you have to deal with this. Sorry you are having to not be there. However, I don't think that moving it would be practical. Attendence would nosedive. I could be wrong.
Attendance is going to nosedive anyways.
Values aside - because to be clear, I am not interested in visiting a country run by fascist hate groups regardless of my level of personal risk, and much of the community stands with me on this - DrupalCon is facing some very serious challenges here.
If this trade war takes off and the Canadian dollar declines even further, an already prohibitively expensive event will become even more challenging. As I understand it, Mexico is in a similar position. I spent nearly $3000 CAD on the hotel alone.
On the flip side, if we host in Toronto or Vancouver, Americans would be benefitting immensely from the exchange rate (in reverse, my $2000 bill would be under $1500). It would also be more affordable for the DA as they manage funds in USD.
Business aside, let's look at values again. Our community is built on a foundation of strong values. Contributing to Drupal is about more than just developing your career or building a reputation. Many attendees and sponsors really believe in the value of community and the good we can do together. If you look through the history of locations for DrupalCon NA, you may notice they tend to be in states that are more left aligned. This is not a coincindence. This matters to our community.
We can only project impact based on the metrics that are published about attendance and demographics, but these are publicly available on d.o if you are curious. Based on the data I can see and my understanding of the impact of politics - I would say Rachel is right. We need to get out of the US.
imo, I don't think it…
imo, I don't think it currently is safe for anyone to visit the US. Saying this as a cishet white male. Any event organized in the US should be thought of by the organizers as local. Any moral, ethical open source project should organize international events outside of the US.
I recognize this statement may hurt, as many are still struggling to deal with the full impact of the current situation and are still struggling with how much they are not what their current administration is and I am sorry for that.