IN 2020, Google launched its Pride Conversations to celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion during Pride Month.
I always love attending Google’s and YouTube’s online events because the conversations are so intelligent and thought-provoking that I take notes from beginning to end, and this one was no different.
For 2022, Google’s “Pride Conversations: Championing LGBTQ+ and allies in tech” put the spotlight on app and web developers, UX/UI designers and tech professionals, among others, to tell inspiring LGBTQ+ success stories and encourage more allies.
“As we reconnect with Pride, may we remember the past. May we continue to champion stories of equity, equality and diversity,” said Bernadette Nacario, Google’s country director in the Philippines.
Google invited different personalities to talk about their experience as LGBTQ+ and how they coped during quarantine (one panelist said drag content really helped). It was a real conversation moderated by Google’s own Jolly Estaris, lead for video and media sales of Google Philippines, and aired live over Google’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Writer Mela Habijan, who was the first Miss Trans Global in 2020, always wanted to work for a certain multi-national which manufactured her favorite chocolate drink.
“Akala ko wala akong puwang sa mundo [I thought I had no place in this world]. Sabi nila, they only accept people who looked and acted professional,” said Habijan.
Habijan considers social media, tech and the digital world as the “fairy godmothers” who gave her the power to be herself.
To her, social media was an open-minded platform and a democratic arena. Tech was a space for empowerment. The digital world, unlike the real world at the time, saw her being trans as a leverage of potential.
“I found my voice online and I used my socials to amplify diversity,” said Habijan, who is now one of the most visible LGBTQ+ in the Philippines.
The other panelists for “Pride Conversations: Championing LGBTQ+ and allies in tech” included Cristina del Rosario, head of design of fintech company First Circle; Darwin Mariano, Boys’ Lockdown producer and founder of online event solutions platform Ticket2Me; Jolly Estaris, lead for video and media sales of Google Philippines; Maki Gingoyon, cofounder and COO of dating web site www.mytransgenderdate.com; Mark Lacsamana, UI design lead of talent recruitment software PageUp; and Sam Rose Cruz, product designer of live streaming and recording app XSplit.
Del Rosario, who met her wife nine years ago on a dating app, talked about how social media and the Internet was a space that helped her became a better ally. This, by the way, is a concern in the LGBTQ+ community as not every person or experience is the same. Even LGBTQ+ need to become allies.
“I know hardly any lesbians in my personal life but I know many lesbians online. I also follow a lot of trans and non binary creators,” said Del Rosario.
“Pride is not being ashamed of who I am just because I am a woman who happens to love another woman,” said Cruz. She also talked about her experience during the early days of the pandemic.
“We were confined in our own homes and many of us felt isolated but our community has always been about showing up for people.”
Gingoyon recalled how she and her partner, who is trans-oriented, founded www.mytransgenderdate.com.
“I believe my personal experience is pretty much common among transwoman in the hope of finding that person who will love us for who we are.”
But the dating experience for transwomen in 2012 and earlier was very different.
“Transwomen were presented as sexual objects and this stained the image of transwomen online. It hurt so much because we weren’t taken seriously. My partner is a trans-oriented man and we talked about how finding a genuine dating site was very difficult,” said Gingoyon.
In 2013, Gingoyon and her partner cofounded www.mytransgenderdate.com, which is now a safe space for 1.5 million transwomen worldwide.
Mariano talked about how liberating the genre BL (stands for Boys’ Love) was. In the past, this genre was considered a sub-culture of K-pop, J-pop and Thai drama, but it’s now mainstream thanks largely to creators like Mariano who removed the fetish factor and simply presented Boys’ Love as what it is—a love story between two individuals.
“I was producing theater for a very long time. It’s important to show the community that these kinds of stories can be successful, and to show kids growing up that it’s okay to be different. The challenge is supporting it with a business model that lets you monetize it so you could keep producing content,” said Mariano.
And this is where platforms, like YouTube come in. Creators of BL can upload their content on their YouTube channels for monetization and they can produce new content.
The panelists also reminded everyone that there’s still much to be done to achieve equality and diversity.
“Being as open as we are is revolutionary but nobody is free until everyone is free,” said Lacsamana.
Gingoyon reminded everyone how LGBTQ+ has always been around, that they are in fact a part of history.
British mathematician Alan Turing was convicted for homosexuality but they helped crack Nazi Germany’s “Enigma” code and laid the groundwork for modern computing.
“In 1952, Turing was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ over his relationship with another man, and he was stripped of his security clearance, subjected to monitoring by British authorities, and forced to take estrogen to neutralize his sex drive—a process described by some as chemical castration,” according to The Associated Press.
Lynn Conway, a promising computer engineer, was fired by IBM in 1968 because she was undertaking a gender transition.
In 2020, IBM apologized to her in a virtual meeting and the company gave her an award for her pioneering work in computers. Conway was 82 when she received the apology.
“Pride should also be a reminder for everyone that there were people who fought for everyone to be treated equally,” said Gingoyon.
To view “Pride Conversations: Championing LGBTQ+ and allies in tech,” go to www.youtu.be/1-WDZmJyPwc. n
