Pride Month: Celebrating Black LGBTQ+ Leaders In Tech
Every June, Pride Month celebrates LGBTQ+ communities worldwide and honors their contributions to society. It’s also a time to recognize the ongoing struggle for representation, equality, and acceptance.
In the tech industry, the LGBTQ+ community is underrepresented, with only 11% identifying as LGBTQ+. A McKinsey and Co. report found that while Black people make up 12% of the US workforce, only 8% are in tech jobs, resulting in a relatively low number of Black LGBTQ+ individuals in tech.
Despite these challenges, many Black LGBTQ+ people are paving the way for others to join, feel included, and be accepted. Here, we celebrate their efforts and highlight some of these industry leaders.
Stephanie (Lampkin) Van Putten – BlendScore, Co-Founder & CEO
VanPutten is the co-founder and CEO of BlendScore – formerly Blendoor – a social impact and analytics company that utilizes people analytic software and inclusivity measures to build solutions.
BlendScore’s diversity rating metric allows companies to hire based on merit, removing unconscious bias in hiring, and increasing diversity.
Featured in Fortune’s 40 Under 40, VanPutten has had a passion for computer science before starting her business in 2015 as she started developing her coding skills at the age of 13 and went on to major in engineering at Stanford.
She has now been aiming to break barriers for Black women in tech for over two decades through her work with companies such as Microsoft, Lockheed, Deloitte, and TripAdvisor.
Ben Stokes – Chasing Rainbows, Founding Partner
Stokes is a founding partner at Chasing Rainbows, a VC firm that invests in pre-seed tech companies led by LGBTQ+ founders and Black and female founders.
Founded in 2021, Chasing Rainbows seeks to level the funding playing field for founders who often don’t have access to funding networks.
For LGBTQ+ founders, the firm intends to serve as the “friends and family round those founders often miss out on due to familial ostracization or bias – conscious or not – from traditional funding communities.”
Stokes has been internationally recognized for his LGBTQ+ advocacy work and commitment to changing the VC funding landscape.
Densil Porteous – Pride VC, CEO
Porteous is the CEO of Pride VC, a Columbus, Ohio-based venture capital firm that empowers the LGBTQ+ community.
The firm strives to empower LGBTQ+ and queer entrepreneurs, companies, investors, and communities through investment and uplift.
They provide resources and capital to venture-ready businesses with a focus on LGBTQ+ ventures and founders at the pre-seed, seed, and A stages.
Porteuos also currently guides Stonewall Columbus, the LGBTQ+ center and organization of Central Ohio, as the Executive Director.
Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler – Trans*H4ck, Founder
Dr. Ziegler is an award-winning content creator and the founder of Trans*H4ck, a nonprofit organization offering community and visibility for transgender technologists and entrepreneurs.
To date, he has spearheaded several solution-driven projects focused on providing support for the Black diaspora and gender non-conforming people.
The organization aims to shift the way trans*, gender non-conforming, agender and non-binary people live by creating technology that can empower and improve their access to social services and promote safety.
They also aim to bring visibility to trans* tech innovators and entrepreneurs.
