LGBT STEM Day
Written by: Alicen Ricard
WHAT IS LGBT STEM DAY?
The First International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths ( happened on July 5, 2018. In order to create a more inclusive environment in STEM workplaces , ,, and teamed up to create the event. Multiple studies (see , , , and ) show that LGBT people in STEM careers don鈥檛 always feel like they鈥檙e the most inclusive places to work and they struggle to be themselves at work. However, things are changing and there are so many organizations out there that are trying to make that happen. On Pride in STEM鈥檚 they said they 鈥渟elected July 5th to celebrate this date in 2018 as it can be written as 鈥�507鈥� which is (in nanometres) the wavelength of the colour green featured in the rainbow flag and is representative of nature. If you鈥檙e in the US, then it鈥檚 鈥�705鈥� which is the wavelength of the color red, representing life.鈥�
They aren鈥檛 the only ones doing this. Here in Vancouver, also celebrated LGBT STEM day. It happened at Science World on July 5th between 11am and 3pm, where people could check out all the awesome tables and talk to people in STEM fields. WWEST was there, talking about all the cool work we鈥檙e doing, as well as the , , , , , , and the .
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?
Tweet using the #LGBTSTEMday hashtag and let people know about this great day. The more word that鈥檚 spread about this, the more people it can reach, and the more the message of inclusive workplaces can be heard. Pride in STEM has also released a toolkit for LGBT STEM day that you can check out . Look out forthe day again next year.
Listen to our coverage of the event on our Best of the WWEST podcast.
You can also follow this list of organizations on Twitter and see what they鈥檙e doing: