LGBTQ+ Innovators You Need To Know

Take a look at some of the LGBTQ+ champions who have made a difference in their communities, shaped the wider world, and provided inspiration for millions of people…

AUDREY TANG

Audrey Tang is post-gender, nonbinary, trans person, who doesn’t identify with any pronoun - they instead invite people to use any pronoun. Audrey is the Digital Minister of Taiwan and the person who led Taiwan’s tech-based COVID-19 response. The response included promoting an open source website for finding shops with masks in stock, developing a vaccination reservation system, and creating a contact tracing system that allowed users to remain anonymous. Incredible! They were innovating well before the pandemic hit too, with a history in programming and politics. Audrey believes technology and democracy can go hand in hand, and is a big advocate of the g0v movement - an open source, open-government collaboration that promotes transparency and looks to ‘rethink the role of government from zero’ in Taiwan. 

LYNN CONWAY

Lynn Conway is an American computer scientist who has worked for the likes of MIT, Xerox, and IBM, and is credited with inventing generalised dynamic instruction handling - which is basically a key part of the design and production of microchips that most computers all over the world use. Pretty good right? But it wasn’t always an easy road. Lynn was born male, but suffered from gender dysphoria. She had to leave MIT in 1957 as the medical climate at the time wouldn’t allow her gender transition and then, in 1968, was fired from IBM as they feared a ‘scandal’ would happen after she disclosed her intention to transition. Lynn completed her gender transition, worked as an electronics technician for several years, resumed her education at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and built a microchip that was a true revolution, sweeping through research institutions and computer industries of the 1980s and changing the way we use computers to this day! 

ALAN TURING

Alan Turing is known as the father of modern computing and is a British hero. During World War Two, he worked as a cryptographer, building the algorithms and machines that would break the German Enigma code and help bring an end to the war. He went on to use his knowledge to design the Automatic Computing Engine, which was one of the first ever designs for a computer. However, this incredible achievement did not stop him from being convicted of ‘gross indecency’, in 1952, just because he was gay - which at the time, was illegal. He was no longer allowed to work for the government, and in exchange for not going to prison, Alan was forced to accept chemical castration. In 2009, Alan received a posthumous apology from then Prime Minister Gordon Brown on behalf of the British government for the way he was treated, and, four years later, a posthumous royal pardon. Computing as we know it comes down to Alan and is just one of the many reasons he’s one of the most influential British figures of the 20th century.

LANA AND LILY WACHOWSKI

Sisters, Lana and Lily Wachoswki, are filmmakers, writers, and directors best known for The Matrix. While the film has long been a sci-fi cult classic, it has also been a source of comfort for many trans people around the world - with them speculating about potential trans meanings in the film. When it came out, both sisters were indeed struggling with their own gender identities, and found some peace and understanding with what they were creating. Lily has since said that "The Matrix stuff was all about the desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view. We had the character of Switch - who was a man in the real world and then a woman in the Matrix." Lana and Lily both transitioned in the 2000’s, after The Matrix came out, and Lily has said that she wasn’t sure "how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing The Matrix, we were existing in a space where the words didn't exist, so we were always living in a world of imagination". Now, living their most authentic lives, the Wachoswki sisters have provided a space for so many trans people around the world to feel safe, inspired, and to see themselves not only on screen but in a massive industry. 

NERGIS MAVALVALA

Nergis Mavalvala is a Pakistani-American astrophysicist whose work has helped confirm part of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and is part of the team that first detected gravitational waves in the fabric of spacetime, caused by black holes. The work was so important it was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. Amazing! Nergis was also named the LGBTQ Scientist of the Year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals in 2014. She’s a proud lesbian, who has credited her success to her parents for not binding her, or her sister, to any gender steroetypes when she was growing up. She has said, “Anybody should be able to succeed — whether you’re a woman, a religious minority or whether you’re gay. It just doesn’t matter. Anybody should be able to do those things. And I am proof of that because I am all of those things. With the right combination of opportunities, it was possible for me to do.” Nergis is a huge inspiration for anyone looking to go into STEM and her innovations are not only improving the scientific community but making groundbreaking contributions to physics as we know it!

Who are your favourite innovators? Let us know over on Insta at @NCS!