>> Cern laboratory made famous for work on Large Hadron Collider embroiled in homophobia row
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Le plus grand laboratoire de physique des particules du monde serait également un formidable incubateur d’homophobie, d’après les membres du groupe LGBT du CERN qui dénoncent dans la presse, à l’occasion de leur cinquième anniversaire, des faits de discrimination qui perdurent depuis des années, malgré les enjeux de leurs travaux.
Mails et graffitis insultants, menaces extraites des citations du Lévitique, décrivant les relations sexuelles entre hommes comme une « abomination » pour laquelle ils devraient être « mis à mort », c’est une véritable campagne de haine que l’on retrouve sur nos affiches dégradées, explique le physicien britannique Aidan Randle-Conde, fondateur du mouvement des scientifiques LGBT.
En avril 2015, le problème était devenu si grave, que l’ancien président du laboratoire Rolf Heuer a adressé un message à tous les fonctionnaires du laboratoire pour les mettre en garde, en les appelant au respect malgré les différences. « C’est une partie de l’identité du CERN, de notre humanité : ce ne sont pas que des mots », écrivait-il. Mais les agressions ont continué. Et en février dernier, la direction a renouvelé l’avertissement, condamnant fermement ces dérives, qualifiées d’intolérables.
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#LGBT discrimination at @CERN – read the original in-depth story on @PhysicsWorld https://t.co/0o6FK8ylg9 pic.twitter.com/4gukzGDTxo
— Physics World (@PhysicsWorld) 21 mars 2016
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Selon le The Sunday Times, au moins un chercheur aurait été identifié, pris sur le vif, grâce aux caméras de vidéosurveillance. Il était en train d’arracher des affiches. Une information que salue le groupe, en relativisant toutefois, « les personnes LGBT sont malheureusement confrontées de par le monde à des hostilités qui nous freinent en tant que scientifiques dans nos collaborations internationales, mais nous avons l’opportunité de bénéficier au Cern d’un environnement plus à l’écoute. »
L’association des membres du personnel refuse toutefois de les intégrer officiellement au sein de l’organisation et la direction a été contrainte de statuer sur la création d’un nouveau statut « informel », pour les affilier.
Terrence Katchadourian
stophomophobie.org
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>> One of the world’s largest projects for scientific co-operation, the Cern laboratory in Geneva, has become embroiled in a divisive row over homophobia.
The European particle physics laboratory has garnered international fame for its work at the Large Hadron Collider, a vast underground circular tunnel where, in 2012, scientists used a particle accelerator to prove the existence of the sub-atomic Higgs boson particle.
However, its reputation as a co-operative community of scientists from all over the world has been dealt a blow after allegations emerged that a spate of homophobic incidents had taken place at the laboratory.
At least one researcher is reported by The Sunday Times to have been formally disciplined after CCTV cameras caught them defacing posters advertising Cern’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) club events.
LGBT Cern group members claim the abuse has been ongoing for years, with posters defaced with words such as “Schwein” (German for pig) and Old Testament biblical quotations describing sexual relations between men as an “abomination” for which they should be “put to death”.
“The continuing defacing of our posters is an unacceptable campaign of hate and intolerance,” British physicist and founder of LGBT Cern group Aidan Randle-Conde told the newspaper. “We do keep a track of how many posters get taken down or defaced and over a two-week period roughly one-third can be removed. I don’t know who is responsible, although it is probably the work of a few people. In some cases there have been religious texts attached to the posters.”
The abuse became so bad last year that Cern’s then director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer warned all staff that they would be “dealt with accordingly” if there were further “acts of defacement to the LGBT community’s posters”.
Despite the warning, problems appear to have continued and last month Cern’s director of human resources issued a second caution to all staff.
A recent blog posted by the LGBT Cern group marking its fifth anniversary also referred to the problem on site. It read: “In a lab of thousands of people from all over the world and of all ages, it is not surprising to find a small minority who have a problem with our group.
“They have always been at the lab; the difference is that now they are making themselves known.”
A spokesman for Cern told The Sunday Times: “Cern really cannot accept something like this and it is why we have taken disciplinary measures against at least one person we could identify as being responsible for these disrespectful actions. Homophobic behaviour is not and will not be tolerated at Cern.”
Both Cern and LGBT Cern were unavailable for comment when contacted by The Independent on 20 March.
Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, was created in 1954 on the Franco-Swiss border to investigate the basic structure of the universe by studying what makes up matter.
The laboratory now has more than 10,000 scientists and engineers from 21 countries working on the project. One of the most significant by-products of its work has been the creation of the world wide web by the British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
A spokesperson for CERN said: « CERN considers that these acts are unacceptable, and strongly condemned on various occasions. This is in our DNA not only words, and is clearly reflected in our core values and in our code of conduct. Homophobic behaviour is clearly not welcome at CERN and will not be tolerated. »
A spokesperson for LGBT CERN said: « The recent article published in the Sunday Times is factually accurate, but some of us feel it conveyed the sense that the situation is much worse than it is. Poster removal is unfortunately a common occurrence, but more serious events, such as the “Schwein” grafitti or threats like the Leviticus posting are thankfully rare. We appreciate that action has been taken against the one person caught removing a poster and are also pleased that we have an open line of communication with the CERN Diversity Office. Issues affecting LGBTQ* scientists go far beyond the laboratory, and in some parts of the world it is not safe for out LGBTQ* people to walk the streets. As scientists who attend conferences across the world, this places limits on our safety and ability to collaborate internationally. »
