The Gay Engeer - IEEE Spectm

Contents:

• MR. JT GAY
• WHY GAY ENGEERS MAKE THE ENGEERG INDTRY A BETTER PLACE
• NATNAL ORGANIZATN OF GAY AND LBIAN SCIENTISTS AND TECHNIL PROFSNALS (NOGLSTP)
• SYNONYMS FOR GAY ENGEER
• QUEER & NERDY: WHY YOUR STARTUP SHOULD HIRE A GAY VELOPER

MR. JT GAY

Meyer is days, engeers and the anizatns that employ them may accept the need to diversify the profsn terms of race, genr, relign, and physil abili, but sexual orientatn remas a prickly topic�wns the recent ntroversy over gay marriage the U.

He rells male classmat engeerg school jokg about gays ont of him, obliv to his sexual orientatn. Thgs might be tougher for gay men engeerg, a profsn that is tradnally "whe, male, and nservative, " Meyer says, bee "gay [men] are stereotypilly nsired feme and weak and more to artsy stuff. C., advocy anizatn for the gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr (GLBT) muny, attus are shiftg.

WHY GAY ENGEERS MAKE THE ENGEERG INDTRY A BETTER PLACE

" Many high-tech employers, for example, now clu gays and lbians their diversy 's still room for improvement, though.

NATNAL ORGANIZATN OF GAY AND LBIAN SCIENTISTS AND TECHNIL PROFSNALS (NOGLSTP)

In the HRC x, most of the tech employers that offer benefs to gays (such as health-re verage for domtic partners) still don't clu transgenred dividuals their equal-employment polici.

Workplace, as society, gays and lbians are not yet regnized as a group that serv benefs and legal protectn. "It is still legal 36 stat to fire employe who are gay, " says Daryl Herrschaft, puty director of HRC's WorkNet, a program that provis up-to-date rmatn on workplace polici and laws throughout the Uned Stat. " Even though she hadn't seen overt discrimatn, she didn't tell -workers she was a lbian, bee she didn't feel that most people were aware of, and fortable wh, gay and lbian today are much more acceptg of the GLBT muny, Icenogle says.

"Icenogle is now chair of Lucent's GLBT support group, where gay employe n raise workplace issu of tert to them. To ensure that other nongay employe bee faiar wh GLBT issu, Icenogle suggts that pani clu sexual orientatn their diversy trag programs, as well as provi workshops and talks on gay issu for all employe and their fai and social attus regardg sexualy change, employers will evably have to adapt.

SYNONYMS FOR GAY ENGEER

"Younger people are more aware of their sexualy, and are g out more and more, " not Barbara Belmont, treasurer of the Natnal Organizatn for Gay and Lbian Scientists and Technil Profsnals Inc., a group that works to elimate discrimatn agast homosexuals. Timothy Meyer, for one, believ attus toward gays will ntue to improve. In the Uned Stat, there is the Natnal Organizatn of Gay and Lbian Scientists and Technil Profsnals (NOGLSTP), NuclearPri, 500 Queer Scientists, LGBT STEM, and oSTEM.

I wanted to wre an article celebratg the works of the most fluential gay, lbian, transgenr and bisexual novators, ventors and scientists throughout history. However, there was a are jt not many lists of famo homosexuals the homosexualy has often been associated wh the arts and creativy, has never been as openly accepted wh the scientific muny.

Ined, beg a homosexual was a crimal offense many untri until recently (and many untri, ntu to be today), which will have prevented many historil figur om g out of the closet. In the UK, before 1967 (jt over 50 years ago) homosexualy ed to be punishable by sentenc as harsh as life imprisonment.

QUEER & NERDY: WHY YOUR STARTUP SHOULD HIRE A GAY VELOPER

As a rult, many of history’s greatt homosexual scientists may have hidn their te inty.

However, the gay muny has a long history of ntributns to science and I have piled a number of proment novators, scientists, and ventors who were LGBTQ, as they have eher openly admted to beg gay or historil rerds of their relatnships strongly suggt they were (see sourc at bottom of the article). Historil not believe that he was primarily homosexual.

Rpectg the potato kgHistoril acunts believe he was homosexual, which enraged his fay and society at the time.