On 4/9/16 11:01 AM, Fred Baker (fred) wrote:
One could mention sodomy laws in Texas; we have met in Houstaon and Dalls, I believe, there times.
That goes, I think, to the question of unenforceable laws (Lawrence v. Texas). I'm interested in the question of where the line is between issues that the IETF needs to deal with and matters of personal conscience, and I tend to think it comes down to questions of whether or not meeting participants will be treated equally when it comes to public accommodation, etc. As we're seeing, businesses are responding to the recent spate of anti-gay legislation and transphobic potty laws by announcing that they're not opening planned facilities in those states, not allowing their employees to take business travel there, and so on. So, there's an actual question about whether or not the IETF would be able to meet in a place that's recently passed anti-gay legislation, given some corporate travel restrictions. As far as I know there are no corporate bans on travel to Singapore, but civil liberties organizations like Civil Rights Watch have identified Singapore as a place where LGBT people still face active legal discrimination and it seems clear that there's a legitimate question about what sort of treatment some meeting participants can expect to receive. Melinda