ECGD Statement on Poster Defacements
The defacement of posters put up by CERN's LGBT group (discussed briefly in our ECGD meeting in Dec 2014) has been reported on Sunday 20 March 2016 by the Sunday Times, and subsequently in many other news outlets, including the Independent, International Business Times, Ahmedabad Mirror, Daily Mail, Physics World, and many more.
These poster defacements, which in rare cases included insults, threats and bible verses, show that there are bigoted people incapable of operating in the open, international, multicultural and tolerant working environment for which CERN rightly prides itelf, and in which scientists of any sexual orientation and identity are welcome to work and express themselves. Homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and other froms of bigotry need to be tackled wherever they raise their ugly heads. We therefore welcome the discussion of this issue in the press, although we do not believe that these instances of bigotry reflect an overall homophobic atmosphere at CERN, as some articles imply. CERN as an international laboratory reflects the international community, and as such cannot completely isolate itself from the widespread problem of homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. What should be done to tackle this problem at CERN, and elsewhere in the world, is an important discussion.
A statement by the CERN Director General (Rolf Heuer at the time) condeming the defacements can be found here.
A statement by CERN's LGBT group on the matter can be found here.
These poster defacements, which in rare cases included insults, threats and bible verses, show that there are bigoted people incapable of operating in the open, international, multicultural and tolerant working environment for which CERN rightly prides itelf, and in which scientists of any sexual orientation and identity are welcome to work and express themselves. Homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and other froms of bigotry need to be tackled wherever they raise their ugly heads. We therefore welcome the discussion of this issue in the press, although we do not believe that these instances of bigotry reflect an overall homophobic atmosphere at CERN, as some articles imply. CERN as an international laboratory reflects the international community, and as such cannot completely isolate itself from the widespread problem of homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. What should be done to tackle this problem at CERN, and elsewhere in the world, is an important discussion.
A statement by the CERN Director General (Rolf Heuer at the time) condeming the defacements can be found here.
A statement by CERN's LGBT group on the matter can be found here.