Week Seven: Cathedrals, Roman Ruins, and the Ripple Effect
Bonjour de Lyon, France!
This week at IBJ, I worked on a few interesting projects. First, and most substantially, I worked more on the LGBTQIA+ legal analysis project for IBJ. This week, I read Fox Odoi v. Attorney General, a case decided by the Constitutional Court of Uganda this April. Fox Odoi, as I mentioned last week, is the recent decision upholding the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda. The Act faced strong legal backlash from domestic and international human rights activists for instating the death penalty for “serial” homosexuals, life sentences for anyone convicted of homosexuality, and 20-year sentences for anyone that “normalizes” homosexuality – particularly, human rights activists who criticize the death penalty for homosexuality. One jarring piece of information that I took from reading Fox Odoi was that the Ugandan Constitutional Court cited Dobbs v. Jackson in the decision to justify the death penalty for homosexuality. It was a very clear example of how our domestic politics in America have long-lasting and widespread effects on marginalized groups around the world. The decisions we make in our own country truly have a ripple effect on the rest of the international community.
Outside of work this week – as you may have guessed from the opening – I traveled to France! This week, my two best friends from college traveled halfway around the world so that we could all meet up in Lyon. One of them, Acadia, traveled all the way from her Peace Corps post in Cameroon, and the other, Johanna, hopped on a plane from her PhD program in Texas! Acadia’s aunt was kind enough to host all three of us at her apartment in Lyon, so bright and early Saturday morning, I hopped on a train from Geneva to Lyon.
On our first day in France, we explored the Jardin Botanique de Lyon, where we had ice cream by the lake and caught up after not seeing each other in a few months. The Jardin Botanique also had a small zoo that was free to visit, so we were able to see some adorable baby giraffes and other fun critters. After visiting the Jardin Botanique, we went to the Vieux Lyon – the old part of the city. It was absolutely beautiful, and we explored many old shops, including a bookshop where we could pick up books that were older than the United States of America! The oldest book I looked at was from the early 1600s! After exploring the Vieux Lyon, we climbed the hill to Fourvière, where the Notre Dame de Fourvière sits perched atop the hill and overlooks all of Lyon. It was an absolutely beautiful basilica, and it had such an amazing view of the city.
The next day, we visited the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, a gorgeous art museum in the city. We wandered around the museum for a few hours and saw amazing art from both Lyon and abroad. I was most impressed by the sculpture gallery, and we had a lot of fun wandering through the galleries. Unfortunately, the exhibits closed early in the afternoon, so we ended up grabbing a quick coffee and snack in the museum’s cafe before continuing on with our day’s adventures. We ventured back to the old part of Lyon after the museum, and this time we went with a goal in mind: to see the Roman ruins of Lyon. Just outside of the old town, there is a massive Roman amphitheater that is still the site of regular concerts and events in Lyon today.
It was amazing to get to explore so much art and history this weekend in Lyon, and I can’t wait to see what the next week brings!
Kristen