Archive for LGBT rights
the thought police
Posted in Statistics with tags 1984, baby Trump, biases, diversity, equity, ethnicity, George Orwell, homophobia, LGBT, LGBT rights, Native Americans, Newspeak, Ninety-Eighty-Four, NYT, race, racial profiling, stereotypes, The New York Times, Tought Police, transphobia, Trump administration on March 31, 2025 by xi'an
not a demonstration of anything? [jatp]
Posted in Books, pictures, Travel with tags Cannes film festival, colonne Morris, documentary, Gaza, Gaza war, Gender-Based Violence, Israel, jatp, LGBT rights, Paris, PariSanté campus, prostitution, Tel Aviv on June 14, 2024 by xi'an
total respect!
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags abortion rights, Jacinda Ardern, Labour, LGBT rights, Murupara, New Zealand, politics on January 21, 2023 by xi'an
content which deviates from the norm [from Pest county]
Posted in Statistics with tags Bedtime, Budapest, censorship, children books, discrimination, European Commission, European Parliament, homophobia, Hungary, Líra Könyv, LGBT rights, Not Playtime!, Russia, The Guardian on July 26, 2021 by xi'an
NeurIPS without visa
Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Addis Abeba, Africa, Canada, conferences, Ethiopia, ethiopian food, Human Rights, LGBT rights, lottery, NeurIPS, Synced, USA, Vancouver, visa on September 22, 2019 by xi'an
I came by chance upon this 2018 entry in Synced that NeurIPS now takes place in Canada between Montréal and Vancouver primarily because visas to Canada are easier to get than visas to the USA, even though some researchers still get difficulties in securing theirs. Especially researchers from some African countries, which is exposed in the article as one of the reasons the next ICLR takes place in Addis Ababa. Which I wish I could attend! In the meanwhile, I will be taking part in an ABC workshop in Vancouver, December 08, prior to NeurIPS 2019, before visiting the Department of Statistics at UBC the day after. (My previous visit there was in 1990, I believe!) Incidentally but interestingly, the lottery entries for NeurIPS 2019 are open till September 25, to the public (those not contributing to the conference or any of its affiliated groups). This is certainly better than having bots buying all entries within 12 minutes of the opening time!
More globally, this entry makes me wonder how learned societies could invest in ensuring locations for their (international) meetings allow for a maximum inclusion in terms of these visa difficulties, but also ensuring freedom and safety for all members. Which may prove a de facto impossibility. For instance, Ethiopia has a rather poor record in terms of human rights and, in particular, homosexuality is criminalised there. An alternative would be to hold the conferences in parallel locations chosen to multiply the chances for this inclusion, but this could prove counter-productive [for inclusion] by creating groups that would never ever meet. An insolvable conundrum?
