Re: Lua Workshop 2014 in Moscow?

[Coda Highland <chighland@...>]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Paul Merrell <marbux@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, all,
>
> Add the U.S. to the list of nations where LGBT community members still
> suffer hate-motivated violence, including murder.

This thread has, of course, been extremely political from day one, but
let me point something out.

This happens EVERYWHERE.

The US isn't alone.

Yes, I'm from the US, but I consider myself something of a global
citizen -- I've made efforts to learn about other cultures, I have
friends on five continents, and have been working on international or
culturally diverse teams nearly my whole professional career. LGBT
acceptance has been a slow process; it's been faster than racial
acceptance, largely because it's been able to piggyback on the social
gains made by it, but it's really only been moving for 40-50 years,
and only substantially in the last ten to twenty depending on what
part of the world you're from.

You're going to find stories about anti-LGBT violence all over the place.

Don't look at the stories. Stories by their very nature suffer from
confirmation bias -- it only takes one story to put a black mark on a
country, regardless of the size of its population or its political
leanings.

I accept that people aren't going to want to come to the US due to the
absurdity of our so-called security policies. But when judging a
country for its social behavior, look not at the exceptions but the
norm.

/s/ Adam