Whether your Pride tradition includes cheering on your local parade route or holing up with a good book by a queer author, ‘tis the season to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
For folks in tech who are looking for ways to give back to the LGBTQ+ community this Pride Month, there are plenty of opportunities to show your support. You can lend your coding and technical skills to LGBTQ+ open-source projects, or connect with other LGBTQ+ tech workers at Pride events.
Need ideas? Here are some LGBTQ+ open-source projects, tech organizations, volunteer opportunities, and community happenings to check out this Pride Month — and how to get involved. Happy Pride!
Digital Corps
Out in Tech’s Digital Corps is a group of volunteers who build WordPress websites for LGBTQ+ organizations around the world, with an emphasis on serving organizations in countries where same-sex relationships are outlawed. The organization hosts events where volunteer developers are paired with an organization that needs technical assistance.
How to get involved: Developers, UX designers, or copywriters who are looking to participate can apply to be an Out in Tech volunteer. Beyond these volunteer days, Out in Tech host lots of virtual networking events for queer people, with several taking place throughout the month of June for Pride. You can also join Out in Tech’s Slack to connect with other LGBTQ+ people working in tech and stay up to date on the organization’s latest projects and happenings.
QueerMap by Qiekub
If you’ve got big summer travel plans or just want to discover the queer hangs in your neighborhood, check out QueerMap, a global interactive map of LGBTQ+ community centers, tourist attractions, nightclubs, restaurants, and more. You can filter your search results by location, age recommendations, or queer acceptance delineation (like, “Only for queer people” or “Queer people are welcome”).
The map started as a passion project for developer Thomas Rosen, who wanted to help other queer people discover inclusive spaces. “For me, writing software — coding — has always been the tool that helps me achieve what I want to do,” Thomas said in an interview with Amazon. “And that is not developing software per se, but to build things that can be there for people, to help everyone be more conscious of each other and more compassionate.”
How to get involved: For starters, you can put your go-to spots on the map by adding a new place on the website. There’s also a GitHub page where you can check out the map’s API and open-source repositories. Not sure how to use GitHub? Our course Learn Git & Github will teach you how to use Git commands and start collaborating with other developers using Github.
Refuge Restrooms
The open-source web application Refuge Restrooms is a database that tracks unisex restroom access. The goal of Refuge Restrooms is to make it easier for transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming individuals to find and access safe restrooms.
How to get involved: Refuge Restrooms is on Github, where you can read the code, point out bugs, or suggest improvements. (FYI, most of the contributions on Refuge Restroom’s Github are written in Ruby, so you might want to download it first.) Even if you don’t feel ready to contribute to the open-source code, adding listings to the site is a simple way to keep it alive and make it more useful for others.
Maven Youth
Think summer camp, but instead of making friendship bracelets and canoeing, the campers are LGBTQ+ teens building mobile apps to serve queer youth and prepping for careers in tech. Maven Youth hosts free virtual camps, workshops, and career mentorship programs for LGBTQ+ youth (12-24) who want to “network, organize and educate for social change through technology and the tech sector.”
How to get involved: Maven Youth is looking for volunteers to donate their time and resources for the 2022 virtual summer camp programs. If you’re a gaymer or interested in sharing your career advice with the next gen of tech, there are lots of opportunities — and you don’t need coaching experience to participate. (It’s a good idea to follow Maven Youth’s Instagram for the most up-to-date information.)
.gay Domain
Why have a plain .com domain name when your website could end in .gay? The domain registrar GoDaddy offers .gay websites, and will donate 20% of the cost of registration (it costs $49.99 a year) to LGBTQ+ nonprofits like GLAAD. While this is a small tweak that pretty much anyone with a website can make, using the .gay domain could be a simple way to showcase your pride online.
How to get involved: Search to see if the .gay web address you’re looking for is available, then reserve the domain. If you’ve got a knack for building websites and want to learn how to implement other creative features and designs, be sure to check out our web design courses.
Queer in AI
Members of the LGBTQ+ community who are interested in AI and machine learning should check out Queer in AI, which is an offshoot of the nonprofit Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (aka oSTEM). Queer in AI’s mission is to “make the AI community a safe and inclusive place that welcomes, supports, and values LGBTQIA2S+ people.”
Queer in AI hosts conferences, meetups, and events. You can watch recordings of select past talks on the organization’s YouTube channel.
How to get involved: You can volunteer as a Queer in AI organizer, a commitment that lasts throughout the year. Donating money to oSTEM’s Covid community relief fund, which goes toward the urgent financial needs of people affected by the pandemic, is another way to show your support. Queer researchers who are studying topics on queer issues in natural language processing and linguistics can submit papers to the organization. And there’s a Queer in AI Slack channel you can join to connect with other members of the organization (learn how to join the Slack channel here).