Lesbians Who Tech + Allies, an organisation and a community for LGBTQ women, gender-non-conforming folks and people who support them in and around the technology industry, organised its second annual summit in London at Facebook's offices on 10 November.
Lesbians Who Tech, a for-profit company, was founded in 2014 and now comprises a community of more than 40,000 members worldwide, with chapters in 42 cities. Each chapter hosts events where LGBTQ women who work in tech have a chance to network in a comfortable environment. Lesbians Who Tech also hosts summits; this year the Lesbians Who Tech conference in San Francisco became the largest LGBTQ professional event in the world, bringing together 5000+ women and allies in a three-day event.
I had previously attended the summits in Berlin (2015), London (2017) and San Francisco (2018). However, this time I was glad to be accepted to speak about a topic that is close to my heart – the Feminist Principles of the Internet – to approximately 150 participants at the London summit.
The principles began to be developed four years ago by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and a group of international activists, researchers and scholars. There are 17 principles, organised into five clusters, and they provide a framework for women’s movements to articulate and explore issues related to technology.
It was especially important to me personally to present ideas and practices that empower more women and queer persons and take a clear stand against specific corporate policies like Facebook’s Real Name Policy, which has been harmful towards victims of abuse and stalking, LGBTIQ people who may not be “out” to their families and friends, people in sensitive occupations, trans-identified persons and others.
With the Feminist Principles of the Internet, we have a political framework based on our values and the changes we want to see in the world. Discussing them within the corporate LGBTQ community empowers all of us as we learn how corporate practices and laws influence our lives and how we can proactively challenge, interrupt and counter the actions of states, companies and individuals that seek to undermine feminist participation and our rights online.
“We want everybody to be able to participate in public life online without fear of violence, intimidation, silencing or censorship.” - Maja Kraljic, a web developer at APC, speaking at the Lesbians Who Tech + Allies London Summit 2018.
Photo: Lesbians Who Tech (used with permission).
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