[Nix-dev] NixCon St. Petersburg 2016

[Aaron Levin]

Hi Everyone,

I want to echo Daniel Peebles' concerns, in addition to the gratitude for
offering to host the conference.

One option would be to speak to a local LGBTQ group to find out what
resources, if any, there exist to help ensure a safe experience for
conference speakers and attendees.

Best,

Aaron Levin

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 4:57 PM, Peter Simons <simons at cryp.to> wrote:

> 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
>
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>



-- 
Aaron Levin / Weird Canada
www.aaronlevin.ca / www.weirdcanada.com
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