[Nix-dev] NixCon St. Petersburg 2016

[Peter Simons]

Jonn Mostovoy writes:

 > I just want to point out that anti-LGBT laws, censorship, oppression of
 > own citizens, geopolitical expansion has nothing to do with daily
 > activities of normal people in big Russian cities. St. Petersburg, the
 > cultural capital of Russia, is safer than a lot of European cities. Of
 > course, there are less safe districts, but such districts exist in
 > London, Paris, New Jersey, you know.

I have never been to St. Petersburg, but I was curious about the situation
and I simply asked Google. My impression was that it doesn't seem so hard to
find a place to go if you want to enjoy gay nightlife:

 - http://www.gay-tour.ru/
 - http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298507-d2620914-Reviews-Central_Station-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html
 - http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/st-petersburgs-gay-nightlife-is-alive-and-kicking/455801.html

Obviously, the discriminatory laws and policies in effect in Russia suck and
nobody in their right mind would want to condone those policies. However,
let's not lose perspective. If we want to have NixOS conferences only in
places with no discriminatory policies whatsoever, then we'll have a hard
time finding a venue, really, because no such country exists.

Personally, I'd be thrilled to visit St. Petersburg. I'd love to see the
White Nights, the historic city center, and possibly some of the theaters
and museums. I hope enough people show an interest so that Arseniy and Max
can organize a great conference for us!

I think it's awesome that they took the initiative, and I hope others do the
same thing and organize Nix conferences wherever they happen to live, too,
so we -- the Nix community -- can use that hobby of ours as a convenient
excuse to travel and meet people from all over the world. :-)

Best regards,
Peter