Bullish: LGBTQ People In Tech

Welcome back to another episode of Bullish! This time, I sat down with Lesbians Who Tech founder Leanne Pittsford to talk about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) inclusivity in the workplace. Although some tech companies have released data around people of color and female representation in their workforce, only one company, Slack, has actually released data around LGBTQ people.

“We actually don’t have any of the data about how LGBT people in the workplace are really being impacted because it’s a little bit of an HR issue,” Pittsford says. “It’s been something that’s been private for people, but I think that’s the next frontier, sort of getting the data and then assessing where people are.”

For workplaces that would like to become more inclusive, Pittsford suggests listening and asking questions. Another good thing might be to go to a Lesbians Who Tech Summit, which is coming up later this week in San Francisco. Lesbians in attendance will be someone who’s working on getting us to Mars by 2020, Pittsford says, and someone from Genentech working on a cure for cancer.

“I think why we’ve had so much growth is we focus on the technology first,” Pittsford says. “They’re talking about all the amazing tech they’re working on and they just happen to be LGBTQ women —LGBTQ women of color.