LGBTQ+ in Tech: Love Will Keep Us Together, A panel discussion
PDXWIT LGBTQ+ in Tech co-founders Crystal Sincoff and Hazel Valdez kicked off Pride month with a panel discussion titled, LGBTQ+ in Tech: Love Will Keep Us Together. The panel featured three amazing speakers:
Salome Chimuku (she/her), Community Engagement Manager at Espousal Strategies
DeAngelo Crane (he/him), Inclusion and Diversity Lead at MTIRE
Katy Byrtus (she/her), Workplace Solutions Partner at Cinder
Through a mix of humor and authenticity, these speakers shared their insights and lived experiences, both personal and professional, that we can all learn and grow from. They talked about what celebrating Pride means, the importance of history and intersectional identities, and what leaders of organizations can do to make sure everyone is included. Most importantly, they reminded us that “going back to normal” is not aspirational.
Below are highlights from the panel discussion “LGBTQ+ in Tech: Love Will Keep Us Together” held on June 1st, 2022. Closed captions were edited for readability. You can watch the full panel discussion on our YouTube channel (and be sure to subscribe while you’re there!).
Hazel Valdez:
So, “Love will keep us together” is the theme. First question: Is it a time to celebrate, or is it time to celebrate differently? How can you share your activism and support differently?
Katy Byrtus:
I have to admit I was really struggling when we met as a group to prepare for the event with feeling like celebrating.I was in a place as I'm sure a lot of people have been, that I was processing and grieving as we all have been with recent events and in our personal lives. So I've shifted that a bit, y'all helped me with that thank you. And while I do believe we should absolutely celebrate ourselves, our community, our queerness, something that I wasn't looking forward to was the LinkedIn feeds going rainbow today. To the corporatization of our identities.
It's challenging for me even as an EDI practitioner as someone who works in employer branding to see the visibility of pride in corporate spaces. When it tends to be held in higher regard than the humans in our community. And so, while yes, I will absolutely be at the House of Ada Ball on Friday the 17th, (see y'all there), we must also take a page out of history, and from Stonewall, and continue to fight for our rights, both inside and outside of our workspaces.
And so again I was reminded by y'all that we must celebrate each other and ourselves, and so that's my commitment to y'all this month: That I'm gonna celebrate me I'm gonna celebrate y'all and I'll continue to produce queer joy and not hide that, and continue to be visible.
Crystal Sincoff:
As a leader, what do you do to support your community both at work and out in the world?
Salome Chimuku:
So I think to celebrate, obviously support the community at work and everywhere else, it's not lost on me that my work is doing just that. I think that my biggest drive is to create a safe space. A space in which people not only feel like they can participate, but a space in which they feel more empowered than when they entered. And if that means that they felt so empowered by whatever we were doing at a Espousal, that they went off to the next project of the next thing, and was like, how do I get involved, how do I speak my voice? Then I think that we all think that's a job well done.
And I think that, in my community, it has led to me reaching out more intentionally to people and spaces that I meet, especially those who are not from the area, those who haven't found their chosen family, those who may not have had the experiences I have had.
So I just try to figure out a way that creates a safe space for people to be themselves, but also a space in which people feel like they can just be, I think there's a lot of pressure to always grow to always move forward to always press, but I think there needs to be space for just having the right to exist for existing sake. So that's just kind of my goals when I move through work in the community.
Hazel Valdez:
We're gonna talk about microaggressions. So in 2021 a study conducted by Mackenzie found that 76% of LGBTQ+ men and 82% of LGBTQ+ women have experienced microaggressions at work. For all of you: What are some ways and or programming have you created and enacted to support, and provide tools for your colleagues?
DeAngelo Crane:
You know, I think what I've learned in working in this field is that we had to really get away from training and move into developmental experiences that were going to build connections for leaders, right? And so what that really looks like it's a multi-level approach. So it was these kinds of workshops for leaders to experience what it means to you know, Diversity, 101, and LGBTQ and all those things 101. Okay. So we did go through that.
But also what we're going through now is also: How do we make sure some of those leaders who are allies are executive sponsors of our employee, resource councils and employee resource groups? How do we also get them into listening sessions and focus groups with employees who don't look like them? How do you also then take them through allyship? What does allyship look like? And how do we define that for our organization, and what it means to be an ally for everyone in our organization? What does it mean to build belonging?
So we really moved away from just the traditional training of leaders, right? Because it was like: How do we just train them on diversity? To moving into: How do we develop better behaviors? Right? You know I used to say it's about changing hearts and minds, but my new leader would tell us we're changing behaviors. And I can rally around that because when we think about behavioral changes, those are long term impacts right? And when we all define as an organization what behaviors we want to have within the organization, then we can move in the same role together, we can say we're on the same street, we all believe in this, and this is what we all value.
Crystal Sincoff:
…I think holding community can be difficult. It was difficult in virtual world and it's gonna be even, I think, trickier in this hybrid world, where we have folks who are still coming in virtually, and folks coming in in person…Have you thought about how we can incorporate that so that folks don't get left behind?
Salome Chimuku:
When it comes to not leaving folks behind, you know I oftentimes try to get people to see the flip side of either something that's great for them, or something that's bad for them. So with some folks who are like, “It's finally so great to be in person and get to be around people again!”, my response is like, well there are still some folks who are compromised, and other folks who have limited mobility, that will not be still able to come in person. And that having the Zoom up still is helpful for them to participate.
Katy Byrtus:
We are still going through an intense amount of collective trauma and grief, and so how are we asking folks what they need in these spaces? How are we being accommodating to our friends that need to go off screen? How are we checking ourselves if we are feeling some type of way that you join via phone versus with your face on, you know? And so the biggest thing is just we're not going back to normal. Please remember that, and please engage with folks in the spaces you're in.
DeAngelo Crane:
My favorite quote is by Maya Angelou, “People may not remember what you said and what you did, but they will always remember the way you make them feel.”…I would say one of the most beneficial conversations I ever had with the leader was that I lived in Charlotte, and there was a shooting, a police shooting of a young black male, and she just said, “How are you doing today?” That's how she started our 1:1. And that created such a great space for us to engage in that conversation, and also have a meaningful work environment with one another. So I would say let's do the art of checking-in, that holding space for people to say I’m fatigued today I’m going to have to take a break.
Hazel Valdez:
Although we're in a virtual world the art of the check-in still really applies. And I don't want to go back to whatever that normal was, because it's not, and I'm going to challenge everyone in this room to say that there's no such thing as a “new normal.” It is now, “it is.” This is the way we work. This is how we are going to move economies. Virtual or in-person, it makes no difference because we proved to the powers of whoever that may be, that we actually can work in the virtual world.