One of the tech industry’s greatest questions is how to build towards solutions while first evaluating a problem or issue that can be improved upon or solved. Millennials quickly adapted to the solution focused sector and are fueling the next big boom in tech and media — and black trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) and queer folks are among the growing sector — using tech as a tool of resistance. Black trans and queer folks are some of tech’s greatest innovators. Yet ,the industry as a whole remains largely white, cis and straight.
The success and growth of the tech industry and its role in social impact would not exist without the contributions of black trans people, yet it still does not have the adequate representation of transgender, especially of black and brown TGNC people, that it should. As one of its goals, last year the Transgender Law Center launched the first of its kind Transform Tech summit in partnership with Salesforce and Lesbians Who Tech. Transform Tech is a summit specific to trans and gender non-conforming people in tech and business with goals to discuss challenges, explore possibilities, and share best practices. It is a space specific to TGNC people who are currently working in these fields, those who are interested, as well as companies and businesses who want to grow more in this area. Transform Tech seeks to shift the diversity and inclusion gaps for TGNC people in tech and to grow into a container especially for TGNC people of color in tech to be well connected and to thrive together.
As my friend RC Brown of Hack The Hood told me, "The most marginalized people will create technology that liberates us all. In order to shift the face of technology, we need to have queer and trans people of color in positions of power, otherwise we will be subjecting to the same boring technology made for one demographic of people."
At Transform Tech, we need more #folkslikeus who are everyday superheroes addressing some of the world’s toughest issues with little to no resources. We need more black and brown TGNC people in tech to join together and leverage critical resources which support initiatives and projects built by black trans people, for black trans people. Only then will we truly see the world we want to see, where more trans people have self-determination and freedom over our lives. Black TGNC folks in tech please join us for a day of connection, dialogue and much more.
Transform Tech is happening again this year on Friday, March 23, 2018 in San Francisco. To learn more and register for Transform Tech visit our website here or contact Wazi Maret at wazi@transgenderlawcenter.org . *No cost tickets are available to those in need.
