Celebrating Pride Month with Our LGBTQ+ Computing Community

Celebrate Pride with Us:

• Pride in STEM Interviews
• Tips for Making Conferences More LGBTQ+ Inclusive
• IEEE Diversity and Inclusion Fund
• Publications

Pride Month, held annually in June in the United States and throughout the year in February, August, September, and October in other countries around the globe, is a celebration that helps us learn about the challenges LGBTQ+ professionals and students overcame and the moments they contributed to massive achievements within the computing community.

LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and all other gender identities and sexual orientations used by members of the community)

Guided by the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and members across the Society, the IEEE Computer Society will uplift and celebrate the voices of the LGBTQ+ community. This supports our commitment to valuing human differences and removing barriers and biases in order to provide equal access and opportunity to succeed.

As a scientific community, this means actively engaging different perspectives from diverse backgrounds. It means investing in our communities and helping them solve challenges. It means guiding computing professionals to remove practices, policies, and beliefs that are harmful to the identities of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. The Society recognizes there is still more work needed in order to achieve our goals. We must amplify our values of providing for the whole computing community.

There is so much work being done by Computer Society Volunteers to support D&I, and we are looking forward to learning how we can help amplify and scale those activities to benefit even more people.” - Leila De Floriani, IEEE Computer Society President 2020

The IEEE Computer Society thanks our LGBTQ+ community members for advocating diversity, equity, and inclusion. We continue to create change and provide affirming spaces for all to show up as their authentic selves.

For this year’s Pride, we put together a combination of resources for and by the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, including career interviews, tips for conference organizers, and publications on topics relating to LGBTQ+ computing professionals.

Don’t forget to bookmark this page. We’ll add new interviews and resources weekly.

Pride in STEM Interviews

Personal experiences, words of encouragement, and career advice - these interviews include something for everyone, including LGBTQ+ professionals navigating their career trajectory, and members looking to learn and advocate for equity and inclusivity within STEM communities.

• • Christian Newman, Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Alexander Serebrenik, Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
  • Ivan Zhao, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science student at Brown University
  • Griffin Solot-Kehl, Developer Advocate at Dolby Laboratories
  • Didem Gurdur Broo, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Stanford University
  • Dr. Daniel Gillis, Associate Professor at the University of Guelph
  • Dr. John Samuel, Associate Professor at CPE Lyon and Associate Researcher at LIRIS Lab
  • Dr. Alexander Gamero Garrido, Future Faculty Fellow at Northeastern University's Khoury College of Computer Sciences
  • Dr. Bruno Lopes, Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense (IC/UFF) and researcher at FR∀M∃ Lab

Tips for Making Conferences More LGBTQ+ Inclusive

Just like the many fields of computing, LGBTQ+ professionals and students are comprised of intersectional identities and communities. The technology and solutions we create are limited by the diversity and experience of the people driving innovation.

The Computer Society Conference Team has put together tips to guide conference organizers to create a more inclusive and affirming environment for researchers and professionals in the private sector to ensure a spectrum of ideas and experiences are being presented during IEEE Computer Society-sponsored conferences.

• Read Tips for Making Conferences more LGBTQ+ Inclusive

IEEE Diversity and Inclusion Fund

Established last year, the Diversity and Inclusion Fund was created to further the mission of the Computer Society to create a more inclusive and accessible computing community by supporting research and projects making an impact in communities around the globe.

• View projects and programs launched in 2022
• Donate to the Diversity and Inclusion Fund

Provide Feedback

We’d love to hear your ideas for improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in computing. Complete an anonymous survey to help shape future activities and actions.

• Take anonymous survey

Publications

• A. Menier, R. Zarch and S. Sexton, "Broadening Gender in Computing for Transgender and Nonbinary Learners," in 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2021 pp. 1-5.
• C. Murphy, A. Mushakevich and Y. Park, "Incorporating Readings on Diversity and Inclusion into a Traditional Software Engineering Course," in 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2021 pp. 1-5.
• T. Barnes, J. Payton, G. Thiruvathukal, K. Boyer and J. Forbes, "Best of RESPECT, Part 2" in Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 18, no. 03, pp. 11-13, 2016.
• R. Prado, W. Mendes, K. Gama and G. Pinto, "How Trans-Inclusive Are Hackathons?" in IEEE Software, vol. 38, no. 02, pp. 26-31, 2021.
• J. Stout and H. Wright, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Students' Sense of Belonging in Computing: An Intersectional Approach" in Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 18, no. 03, pp. 24-30, 2016.
• Z. Guo, S. Liu, L. Pan, S. Guo and T. Niu, "Psychological Gender Express via Mobile Social Network Activities: An Experimental Study on a Gay Network Data," in IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 12696-12704, 2019.
• Jeremy B. Yoder & Allison Mattheis (2016) Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers, Journal of Homosexuality, 63:1, 1-27.
• Erin A. Cech & Tom J. Waidzunas (2011) Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students, Engineering Studies, 3:1, 1-24.
• Ford, D., Milewicz, R., & Serebrenik, A. (2019). How remote work can foster a more inclusive environment for transgender developers. In Proceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, GE 2019 (pp. 9-12). [8819552] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Sansone D, Carpenter CS (2020) Turing’s children: Representation of sexual minorities in STEM. PLOS ONE 15(11): e0241596.
• Exploring the Workplace for LGBT+ Physical Scientists