Discriminating Data: How LGBTQ+ Computer Scientists, Engineers, and High-Tech Professionals Used Data Collection and Computational Analysis to Advocate for Queer Labor Rights
Abstract
In the 1980s and 1990s, American LGBTQ+ computer scientists, engineers, and employees in the tech sector engaged in data activism. These workers, through organizations such as the Lesbian and Gay Association of Engineers, Scientists, and High Tech Professionals (LGAES), High Tech Gays (HTG), the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), and Digital Queers (DQ), distributed surveys, undertook computational analysis, and utilized their skillsets to work towards LGBTQ+ workplace rights within tech companies and beyond. They demonstrated how to leverage their skillsets and capacities within a specific industry to lead to broader social change.
Fields of Study & Subjects
History of Computing Technologies
Gender and Feminist Studies
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Publication details
- Journal / source
- IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 19–30
- Publication date
- 16 February 2026
- Language
- EN