[Diversity-talk] Fwd: Should OSMF adopt a policy about State of the Map conference in places that are LGBTQ*/etc unsafe?

[Jorieke Vyncke]

Hi Amanda and all,

What an incredible difficult question!

My first thought is yes of course everyone should be able to attend State
of the Map conferences in a safe way.

But than I went searching for what countries this would be -
https://ilga.org/maps-sexual-orientation-laws - and I have to say that I do
think it should rather be set as a criteria in consideration for organising
than as a strict rule.

I do think that the conferences that will suffer most are the regional
conferences like State of the Map Africa, Asia, Middle East.
For example State of the Map Africa could not have happened in Kenya and
Uganda. As in Asia was the case with the conference in Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh. And a potential SotM Middle East, could that ever happen in any
country of the region?

In my opinion it would thus be great if you could have a conversation with
mappers of those communities, of organisers of State of the Map Africa and
Asia, and see what they think, because they will be the ones affected.

Best wishes,

Jorieke


On Thu, 7 Oct 2021, 21:32 Amanda McCann, <amanda at technomancy.org> wrote:

> Hello OSMers who are interested in diversity. Yous may be interested in
> this OSMF policy decision from me
>
> --
> Amanda
>
> ----- Original message -----
> From: Amanda McCann <amanda.mccann at osmfoundation.org>
> To: OSM Talk <talk at openstreetmap.org>
> Subject: Should OSMF adopt a policy about State of the Map conference in
> places that are LGBTQ*/etc unsafe?
> Date: Thursday, 7 October 2021 21:23
>
> Hello OSM friends,
>
> So here's an idea... I've previously complained when an organisation holds
> an event in a place where it's “illegal to be gay” and claim that the event
> is a “safe space”. Since I'm on the OSMF Board, I would be wrong for me to
> continue to complain about other organisations and not try to suggest such
> a policy for the OSMF.
>
> The OSMF grants a trademark licence (for the “State of the Map” trademark
> which the OSMF legally owns) to regional event conferences, and legally,
> the OSMF runs the annual State of the Map conference.
>
> There are several different wordings of this policy possible. My initial
> idea of a policy is: “you can't have a SotM for [REGION] in a venue if
> same-sex sexual activity is illegal (& that's being enforced) there, *and*
> there is a place in [REGION] where that is legal (or illegal & not
> enforced)”. This covers bi/pan/queer/etc people.
>
> I can't easily think of a simple rule for trans/gender identity issues
> that's as clear cut for the very basic level (e.g. many countries have
> required gender segregated toilets for a long time and the laws requiring
> ”birth sex” are new and uncommon, legal gender recognition might not be so
> relevant for a visitor, etc) so I'll stick to this for now. I am OK with
> “State of the Map [COUNTRY]” happening in a country where it's illegal
> everywhere. My goal is to prevent anyone having a *legal downgrade* with
> “State of the Map”.
>
> Many in OSM have spent a long time improving things for minoritized
> groups, and maybe this is just another step in that process. I am only
> mentioning “illegal to be gay” because it's a simple, clear standard. I
> think it could be benefitial to include other standards too (e.g. I believe
> some countries forbid women from driving). I am focussing on LGBTQ+ issues
> because that affects me personally, and I know a lot about it. I encourage
> other minoritized people to speak up if they want.
>
> So what do yous, the wider OSM(F) community think about the OSMF adopting
> this policy (or something like it, or not adopting anything new policy)?
>
> --
> (P.S.: I recently changed my name and forgot to subscribe to talk@ with
> this email address)
>
> A. McCann
> Secretary
> OpenStreetMap Foundation
>
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> OpenStreetMap Foundation
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