Response to Utah's Transgender Healthcare Ban

We’re saddened that the state of Utah has chosen to ban healthcare for transgender people. We can’t even imagine how trans Pythonistas and their families in Utah are feeling today. We also recognize that this makes visiting Salt Lake City from other places less appealing, especially for trans and gender-nonconforming Pythonistas.  

At this moment, we’d like to reiterate our commitment to providing a safe and welcoming space at PyCon US. We will continue to uphold our code of conduct and we will be continuing to value each and every member of our community, including queer, trans, genderqueer and non-binary members of our community. Our standards:

“Every member of our community has the right to have their identity respected. The Python community is dedicated to providing a positive experience for everyone, regardless of age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion (or lack thereof), education, or socio-economic status.”

We realize that when the political situation changes between our booking of a venue and the holding of the event, that some people who may have been planning to attend may no longer feel comfortable attending. PyCon US accepts “no questions asked” refunds or conversions to a virtual ticket for any reason, right up to the start of the event.

This is our second contracted year in Salt Lake City. PyCon US moves on to Pittsburgh for 2024 and 2025 and we are currently evaluating venues for 2026 and 2027. We are always working to do better and we welcome your thoughts both on ways that we might support vulnerable members of our community and on places where we might hold future events in the US that will welcome and appreciate the diversity of our community.