WH brings out Tech intertwined with gay rights and Help for the poor
- A program from the White House LGBT Innovation Summit
Technology and gay rights came together at a White House meeting Monday to discuss how technology can help alleviate issues such as poverty and workplace discrimination in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The president’s offices of Public Engagement and Science and Technology Policy hosted nearly 200 entrepreneurs, technologists and community leaders at what it called an LGBT Innovation Summit.
One theme that emerged from the sessions was the need for more data about LGBT communities, since data can be instrumental in getting grants and making political decisions.
“Everyone is collecting data for their populations, but in most spaces LGBT questions are absent. And data is required for the advancement of any population,” said one attendee who declined to be identified because the event was off-the-record. The White House declined to comment about why the event was off-the-record.
Speakers included Tim Gill, founder of Quark publishing software and a prominent gay rights activist; Geena Rocero, founder of transgender rights group Gender Proud; and Leanne Pittsford, founder of Lesbians Who Tech, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women and lesbians in technology.
“To have the White House hold a summit on LGBT innovation and technology is truly remarkable,” Thomas McAfee, president of gay social network Distinc.tt wrote onFacebook FB -3.88%. He wrote that discussion focused on “how technology can be used to end discrimination, as well as the discrimination that members of our community face in the tech sector.”
Many big technology companies publicly support gay employees, though the meeting came as some tech firms are under fire for hostility to women and minorities. Last week, a former executive at startup Tinder sued the popular dating app and its parentIAC/InterActiveCorp IACI -3.03%, claiming she was sexually harassed and discriminated against before being forced out. Earlier this year, a female employee of code-management system GitHub said the startup’s leaders harassed her and fostered an uncomfortable workplace.
Recent disclosures by leading tech companies showed women are under-represented in their workforces, which include few blacks and Hispanics; those disclosures did not include numbers of gay employees.
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