1/ This brief thread is personal and it's an account of my #LGBTQ+ identity and #math, at least at the start. And we will end talking about #race, and specifically the experiences I hear from #Black folx in the US.

2/ I am gay. Like, super-gay. Not just a little gay. I am also a mathematician.

3/ FWIW, I am also white and cisgender and a dude. And I grew up pretty upper-middle class.

4/ There is a fancy math conference that happens every four years called the International Congress of Mathematicians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Congress_of_Mathematicians

5/ The next one is going to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2022. https://icm2022.org 

6/ Russia is one of the worst human rights abusers when it comes to LGTBQ+ people. There is widespread anti-LGBTQ+ public sentiment. In Russia, LGBTQ+ people are imprisoned and killed on the basis of that identity.

7/ I wouldn't set foot in Russia if you paid me. (Please do bring on the snarky comments about how I am not fancy enough to be wanted at the ICM anyway.)

8/ I certainly don't speak for the LGBTQ+ community, but it is hard for me to imagine folks wanting to travel to Russia. Especially if they have family. For heaven's sake, I have a husband and a kid.

9/ There are things I am willing to risk my safety for, but f***. Math is NOT one of them.

10/ So anyway, the International Mathematical Union and all of the mathematics societies that support it have basically said, oh well.

11/ Yes there have been petitions Yes there was debate and letter writing. Some people have tried to stand up for justice here.

12/ And yet in the end, the decision makers chose Russia as the venue.

13/ I am told there are reasons: there's NOWHERE that is welcoming to everyone. Or Russia promised to solve a bunch of visa problems for people who want to attend. Or whatever.

14/ Guess what: I don't care. The decision makers have now said with their decision that LGBTQ+ people like me are not welcome. And they have said that having the conference in Russia is more important than my physical safety.

15/ Not even all my friends know this stuff, but in my time, because of being gay, I've had heckling by strangers, anonymous death threats, and a job offer rescinded.

16/ I had to fight for the right to be married and I put up with all sorts of BS from ignorant people who say unbelievable things about my family structure.

17/ I get called "faggot" on the internet a lot.

18/ Guess what else though. While this stuff has happened to me from time to time, I am privileged NOT to experience violence and/or exclusion due to my LGBTQ+ identity on a daily basis.

19/ So I cannot even imagine the feeling of being a Black person in this country where at any moment, just walking around in your daily life, the police might kill you.

20/ That's it. That's all I have to say for now. It full freaking sucks being excluded in my professional sphere and feeling like they don't give a bleep about me.

21/ And yet this is a tiny fraction of the violence, exclusion, and oppression of Black people that happens every day, everywhere in this country.