Lesbians Who Tech + Allies
Lesbians Who Tech + Allies is a community founded by Leanne Pittsford in 2012 to create a place for queer women and their allies in the field of technology. Its tagline is "Queer, Inclusive, Badass." The organization is the largest LGBTQ technology community in the world, with 50,000 LGBTQ women, non-binary people, people of color and allies in tech in over 42 cities worldwide. History. The community was started based on a small meet up in the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in December 2012. By the end of 2013, small events were launched  in New York, Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, London, Berlin and Toronto and the community had nearly 4,000 people. In October 2013, the Lesbians Who Tech website was launched. The first official Lesbians Who Tech Summit was held in February 2014 in San Francisco. In June 2015, Lesbians Who Tech was awarded a $165,000 grant from the Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation, starting a nonprofit arm of Lesbians Who Tech. The grant money was used for two pilot programs; "Bring a Lesbian to Work Day" and coding scholarship fund. Lesbians Who Tech is committed to convening queer women (and allies) in technology  in a vibrant and inclusive community. It is not a requirement to identify as lesbian or a member of the LGBTQ community o be part of the organization. The only requirement is to follow the organization's mission and goals; promote the visibility and inclusion of women, LGBT people, and people from other back-grounds under-represented in technology. Mission. Lesbians Who Tech's mission is to increase visibility and intersectionality within the technology community. Their mission is to create a culture of inclusion for everyone in order to encourage oneself and others to be influential and make positive changes  in their work environment. Lesbians Who Tech embodies four main goals; (1) to be more visible to each other, (2) to be more visible to others, (3) to get more lesbians and allies into technology, and (4) to connect Lesbians Who Tech to other LGBTQ and Women's organization who are already doing work for the community. Lesbians Who Tech aims to build a network of colleagues, associates, and friends in the industry that share the same sexual orientation, in order to help make comfortable connection within the work space. The organization aims to create more visible lesbian leaders that  have the ability to serve as public role models. As women are still underrepresented in the technology industry, Lesbians Who Tech aims to reach out to women, especially lesbians, and encourage their contributions to technology. Additionally, the organization promises to support other groups who are fighting for the same right (women and LGBTQ rights) and raise awareness of their work, while connecting these organization to women in the tech community. Bring a Lesbian to Work Day. <nowiki>Participants are matched with mentors in the tech field for a one-day on-site program focused on showing them what  it takes to be leaders in whatever field they're interested in. Pittsford's goal is to encourage building relationships where people are comfortable with each other.