Event Location Inclusivity

Question: Is the event located in a region where governments, cultural contexts, or society may cause harm to the physical safety and/or psychological safety of event attendees?

Context Tags: Community, Event

Keyword Tags: Culture, Location, Safety, Inclusivity, Inclusive Events, Discrimination

Description

Many parts of the world are difficult or dangerous for individuals from marginalized groups of society to visit. Cultural differences, civil unrest, and local legislation may restrict the rights of some event attendees. For example, many regions have enacted legislation that limits the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. At the most extreme side, it can impact the safety of the individuals or cause them to leave the proposed event location. Increasingly, corporations and funding agencies are restricting travel and denying travel funding to regions that enact discriminatory legislation.

Event organizers should also be aware of any conflicting events in the local area that may bring harm to their attendees. For example, there may be events occurring at the same time nearby that promote bigotry, racism, homophobia, and hate.

Objectives

This metric may be used to ensure that the event location selected is safe and inclusive for all event attendees. If an event’s location cannot be controlled due to financial or travel constraints, this metric may also be used to communicate the organizer’s position on the local laws, support for the community, and safety warnings to event attendees.

• Attendees of an event may want to know how inclusive an event location is before registering and attending.
• Sponsors of an event may want to know how inclusive an event location is before providing support.
• Event organizers may want to signal disruptions to inclusivity so that attendees and sponsors can make informed decisions.

Implementation

Visualizations

LGBT+ Global Equality Index March 1, 2023 from https://www.equaldex.com/

United States LGBT+ Discrimination Index on March 1, 2023 from https://www.equaldex.com/

Tools Providing the Metric

• Equaldex: Equality Index for LGTBQ+ Community by Location
• HRW maps of anti-LGBTQ laws
• Disability Laws and Acts by Country/Area

Data Collection Strategies

Event organizers can answer the following about their event and share this information with potential event attendees and sponsors:

1. Has the event's region or geographic location been placed on a list of places of concern for any of the following demographics?

   • Sexual and gender minorities
   • People with disabilities
   • Racial and ethnic minorities
   • Women
   • Religious minorities
2. Are there any other events happening in the same location at the same time as your event that could potentially bring harm to a subset of any attendees?
3. In what ways does the event communications address or acknowledge any cause for concern for marginalized attendees?

Event organizers can include a post-conference question asking attendees about event location inclusivity.

References

• California Prohibition on State-Funded and State-Sponsored Travel to States with Discriminatory Laws - https://oag.ca.gov/ab1887
• 20 Most Dangerous Places for Gay Travelers (and the 5 Safest ones) (Forbes, 2019)
• Equaldex: Equality Index for LGTBQ+ Community by Location

Contributors

• Kevin Lumbard
• Justin W. Flory
• Matt Germonprez
• Elizabeth Barron
• Matt Cantu
• Lauren Phipps
• Joshua Simmons

The usage and dissemination of health metrics may lead to privacy violations. Organizations may be exposed to risks. These risks may flow from compliance with the GDPR in the EU, with state law in the US, or with other laws. There may also be contractual risks flowing from terms of service for data providers such as GitHub and GitLab. The usage of metrics must be examined for risk and potential data ethics problems. Please see CHAOSS Data Ethics document for additional guidance.