Exclusive: Andreessens give $250,000 to LGBT groups

SAN FRANCISCO — Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and philanthropist Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen are championing two organizations working to raise the visibility of sexual orientation and gender identity in the technology world.

The husband-and-wife team is giving $250,000 to Trans*H4CK, a nonprofit that puts on hackathons to develop new tech products for the trans and gender non-conforming communities, and Lesbians Who Tech, a national organization that supports and connects gay women in tech by holding gatherings and summits in the USA and overseas.

"We are just thrilled that there are two such high potential organizations that already have demonstrated measurable impact that we can support to create an even broader sense of inclusion in the technology sector," Arrillaga-Andreessen told USA TODAY in an interview.

For years Silicon Valley has positioned itself at the forefront of the gay rights struggle. And, from rainbow emoji on social media to colorful floats in the Pride parade in San Francisco, the technology industry publicly celebrated the Supreme Court's embrace of same-sex marriage this weekend.

Yet while many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are optimistic about the advances being made in the industry and in society at large, they say Silicon Valley is still very much a straight man's world, not as accepting and welcoming as it should be.

"It's great that many companies are supportive of LGBT rights and issues, because that support draws attention to some of the challenges LGBT individuals face. But that external support isn't enough to create a welcoming and inclusive culture for the LGBT community within a company," said Natalie Johnson, a partner with Paradigm, a strategy firm that consults with tech companies on diversity and inclusion.

Inclusion is the hallmark of a series of grants the Andreessens are making to groups that are on the front lines of bringing greater diversity to the white-and-Asian-male-dominated technology industry.

The couple's philanthropy reflects their aspirations for the world their infant son is growing up in, Arrillaga-Andreessen said.

"Like any parent we want the world to be a place that embraces people as they come into it, exactly how they are in their truest self, and not only embraces them but also fosters their self-actualization and their ability to access the opportunities of education, participation in the economy and creating economic self sufficiency," she said.

Major technology companies have been taking steps to address the gender and racial imbalance in their workforces by publicly divulging that lack of diversity and instituting programs to recruit and retain more women and underrepresented minorities. Yet Silicon Valley has set the tone for Corporate America on gay rights.

Apple, Facebook and Google all achieved a perfect score in supporting LGBT employees in the latest report from the Human Rights Campaign, which works for LGBT equal rights.

Every major technology company took part in the Pride parade in San Francisco over the weekend. Apple CEO Tim Cook visited with employees before the march. Last fall Cook publicly disclosed that he is gay, making him the nation's most prominent openly gay executive.

President Obama last week hosted an LGBT Pride reception at the White House, where he was introduced by former Google executive Megan Smith, now chief technology officer for the USA. The event was attended by Lesbians Who Tech founder Leanne Pittsford and other prominent members of the LGBT tech community.

And tech companies are aggressively recruiting LGBT employees. But these employees are not considered underrepresented minorities so their ranks are not being officially tallied as part of the diversity reports released by major technology companies. And that sends a message that "it's not important," Johnson says.

"Companies can support LGBT efforts all they want, but without data they have no way of knowing if their LGBT employees are happy, or if their supportive efforts are working," Johnson said. "In general, it's a mistake for companies to talk about diversity in a broad or general sense, but to only measure, report on, or talk about gender."

Pittsford says the technology industry needs that data to build inclusion.

"The reality is that we don't have any real data on whether or not LGBTQ people face discrimination in Silicon Valley and we need that data," Pittsford said. "We do know that women and people of color are underrepresented here and obviously queer women are accounted for within that community. And for lesbians and queer women we can only deduce how the issues facing women are magnified. For example, if women make less than men, our economic disparity is magnified in comparison to straight couples and especially gay male couples."

Pittsford says her aim is to make gay women more visible in tech and help them connect with one another. Lesbians Who Tech now has 10,000 members around the globe, 25 chapters in the USA and five overseas.

The $165,000 from the Andreessens will help Lesbians Who Tech launch two pilot programs: Bring a Lesbian to Work Day, which will match lesbians considering a career in the tech industry with mentors for a day of job shadowing, and the Coding Scholarship Fund, which will subsidize tuition for those who need financial assistance to attend coding academies.

"We all know that you can't be what you can't see and queer women need more role models," Pittsford said. "We want to lift the names and faces of queer women into the discussion so that they are being talked about and changing the face of the demographic that has belonged solely to men."

Facing distinct challenges is the transgender community. Even with more people transitioning openly, transgender people still confront widespread intolerance and alarmingly high rates of homelessness, unemployment and suicide.

Kortney Ryan Ziegler, who founded Trans*H4CK, is hoping the grants will encourage the tech industry to be more inclusive by putting gender neutral restrooms in the workplace and offering trans-related benefits while also brainstorming innovative ways to address the needs of an underserved community which still lacks basic resources such as transition-related medical care.

Trans*H4CK is a "mini incubator" for trans technologists and entrepreneurs, a place to help find jobs in the technology industry or build startups, Ziegler says. An app built during a Trans*H4CK hackathon recently became the nation's first tech nonprofit to focus on rating healthcare professionals for transgender people. Trans*H4CK will use the $85,000 grant from the Andreeessens to create an online hackathon space and education center to build more apps for the trans community.

"Transgender is now a common part of the mainstream lexicon and tech can benefit from this moment of visibility by encouraging founders, coders, and entrepreneurs who are not trans to be mindful and inclusive of the community," Ziegler said.

Ziegler is hopeful the national spotlight that the Andreessens are training on Trans*H4CK will encourage more supporters to step forward.

"Though Trans*H4CK has acquired deserved notability in the industry, fundraising has been the most difficult. I attribute most of this to the long way the industry has to go in financially supporting underrepresented people," Ziegler said. "Laura and Marc's support poses a direct challenge to this reality by helping to increase access for transgender people in tech while also uplifting the work of a black trans founder — identities of which you rarely see in diversity conversations."