Lesbians Who Tech Awarded $165,000 Grant

Lesbians Who Tech, an organization that supports and connects LGBTQ women in the field of technology through gatherings across the county, was awarded a $165,000 grant from the Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation. Run by a husband and wife team, the Foundation awarded the grant to Lesbians Who Tech with the goal of raising the visibility of sexual orientation and gender identity in the technology world.

"The reality is that we don't have any real data on whether or not LGBTQ people face discrimination in Silicon Valley and we need that data," said Lesbians Who Tech's Founder and CEO, Leanne Pittsford, who recognizes the grant as an achievement for an underrepresented community, saying, "We do know that women and people of color are underrepresented here and obviously queer women are accounted for within that community. And for lesbians and queer women we can only deduce how the issues facing women are magnified. For example, if women make less than men, our economic disparity is magnified in comparison with straight couples and especially gay male couples."

The grant money will be used for two innovative pilot programs. Pittsford will be starting a mentorship program called Bring a Lesbian To Work Day where participants will be matched with mentors in the tech field for a one day on-site program focused on showing the women involved what it takes to be leaders in the respective fields. The second program is a Coding Scholarship Fund which will subsidize tuition for women who need financial assistance to attend coding academies.

Pittsford's goal is to make women more visible in tech and to connect them with one another.

"We all know that you can't be what you can't see and queer women need more role models," Pittsford said. "We want to lift the names and faces of queer women into the discussion so that they are being talked about. It is about changing the face of the demographic that has belonged solely to men."

Lesbians Who Tech is a community of 10,000 LGBTQ women worldwide. The organization's goal is to create community, increase visibility for queer women in tech and to get more women and lesbians in technology.

Their recent San Francisco Summit had over 1,200 women and allies in attendance with speakers like Marc Benioff, Megan Smith and Kara Swisher. And they will be hosting their second New York Summit October 2 at NYU Law School with a special focus on media, digital and finance technology.

For more information on the New York Summit, visit Lesbianswhotech.org/newyorksummit/