Last week, more than 50 volunteer software engineers, designers and copywriters joined forces across two cities to build 10 websites.
The sites were free. They weren’t for an e-commerce company or software firm. Volunteers built them for LGBTQ+ organizations at home and abroad through the Digital Corps initiative for Out In Tech, a nonprofit that aims to connect a growing number of LGBTQ+ tech professionals across the U.S. and U.K.
Out In Tech has developed more than 100 such sites over the years for organizations like the Transgender Welfare Equity and Empowerment Trust (TWEET) Foundation in India, a charity that advocates for transgender rights, and some of whose founders live openly with HIV.
The nonprofit provides free hosting to the Wordpress.com sites for five years, and a custom user guide so individual groups can maintain their sites themselves.
Websites are key to fundraising and community
Gary Goldman, program director for the national Out In Tech nonprofit, said he developed the Digital Corps program in 2016, inspired by his time working and traveling as a consultant for the United Nations. His travels often took him to places with stringent anti-homosexuality laws.
During a trip to Uganda, Goldman met with Pepe Julian Onziema, an LGBTQ+ rights activist who identifies as a transgender man and who organized gay pride celebrations in the conservative African country. Goldman asked Onziema how he could support him. Onziema replied that he needed a better website.
“It made me realize the importance of the web platform as a fundraising mechanism and as a way for folks to feel less lonely in environments where they’re rejected,” Goldman said.
Onziema’s ask inspired Goldman to pitch Digital Corps to Out In Tech. Goldman credits the initiative for now helping grow the group’s national membership to more than 25,000 people.
It is still legal in about 30 states in the United States to discriminate against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
When Digital Corps first launched, Out In Tech volunteers focused solely on building websites for organizations based in countries where homosexuality is illegal — in some cases even punishable by death — or where LGBTQ+ people face persecution.
But in 2017, when President Donald Trump announced that June would be Great Outdoors Month and National Homeownership Month — ignoring the month’s traditional focus on queer pride — Goldman decided to move Digital Corps’ work to the U.S.
Out In Tech volunteers built websites for 10 U.S. organizations focused on LGBTQ+ rights that year, including the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, a group that helps transgender and gender-nonconforming people change their names and genders marker on official documents, like driver’s licenses.
“It is still legal in about 30 states in the United States to discriminate against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity, so it is still not fully safe to be out at work,” Goldman said, adding that federal lawmakers are still debating whether an employer can fire an individual for being LGBTQ+.
“That’s why it's vital to have spaces where you can be with your community, learn about employers that are LGBTQ-friendly, learn about your rights and then also be comfortable,” Goldman said. “A lot of energy is spent for marginalized communities thinking about how they should present, how people are going to receive them, not feeling safe.”
Fellowships, scholarships, mentoring and more
Goldman said local Out In Tech’s 12 chapters provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ tech professionals to be themselves and connect with jobs.
The group offers a fellowship program to help tech companies hire interns who identify as LGBTQ+. Last summer, Goldman said IBM hired three Out In Tech fellows. The nonprofit also operates a national scholarship program that awards 10 people the chance to study at the Flatiron School, a coding academy with 10 locations across the U.S.
Goldman said that, almost every time Out In Tech hosts a panel discussion at a company, members from the firm’s human resources team are there to network with attendees.
In Los Angeles, Oracle recently had an event where speakers from Amazon Studios and Microsoft talked about how to break into tech. In Boston, the Datadog analytics platform recently hosted a panel about how queer voices are represented in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. In New York, View The Space, a commercial real estate software firm, explored how tech is incorporating LGBTQ+ needs in the real estate industry.
By having company HR reps on hand, Goldman said Out In Tech aims increase queer representation in the industry — tech, he said, is still dominated by cisgender, white, straight men.
When you look at the leadership positions, you rarely see queer people at the very top.”
“One of my biggest pet peeves is just the lack of data that we have around LGBTQ people,” Goldman said. “We do know that women are underrepresented and that people of color are underrepresented. When you look at the leadership positions, you rarely see queer people at the very top.”
To address this, the nonprofit this year started Qorporate, a resource for companies to learn how to start employee resource groups for LGBTQ+ individuals. Thirty companies have so far signed on to Qorporate for information on how to cater company culture and HR initiatives to queer employees, learning how to include surrogacy coverage, adoption fees and other benefits that can be important to LGBTQ+ staff.
Out In Tech also offers a remote and in-person mentorship programs nationwide. Goldman said Out In Tech recently closed applications for its seventh iteration of the mentorship program, and that more than 4,000 people applied to serve as either mentors or mentees.
“[It’s about] crafting your perfect resume, nailing your interview, but also how to be out in the workplace and navigate sexual orientation and gender identity at work,” Goldman said. “There’s a real desire not just for queer kids to learn about technology and have mentors, but also for professionals of all ages who are out to meaningfully give back.”
