International conferences are the best. You can exchange, network and plot with professionals and activists fighting for sexual health and rights all over the world. I am a big fan. They give me life, joy and hope in this grim social, economical and ecological context.
But international conferences are also the reality of the privileged few, those who have the right passport, with the right gender marker on it and enough money to buy a flight ticket.
As much as I try to lower my impact when travelling, I end up burning fuel, booking rooms on Airbnb and using Uber to carry my very heavy luggages. I contribute to climate change, horrible workers conditions and urbanistic and housing nightmare. And even if I fancy myself as being “one of the good guy”, my very presence is impacting the communities I visit. And it keeps nagging me. How do I give back? How do I mitigate the impacts of my participation to international conferences (other than attending online)?
One solution that I implemented is to donate SEX-ED + material to the community that welcome the conference. I do not have money, but I don’t mind putting some extra work. So I’ll always give a kit that can be used by the people living there. First Nations sexual health network, queer owned sex shop that delivers workshops to the community, local Planned Parenthood clinic, I try to find something that makes sense to balance it all. I also volunteer as much as I can in local events by and for BIPOC/LGBTQIA2S + communities.
Is it perfect? I don’t think so, but it’s the only thing I could come up with my meagre resources.
What about you? Are you having those discussions? Which solutions did you implement?
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