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.
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