A Conversation About How to Be Better Allies to our LGBTQ+ Peers in the Semiconductor Industry and Beyond

In the aftermath of Gay Pride Month, we bring you a very special episode of the 3D InCites Podcast. Even though it's July, we believe it is important to be allies to the LGBTQ community all year round.

While many companies showed support for the LGBTQ+ community by adapting their logos with rainbow colors and sharing supportive messaging and banners on social media, SEMI Foundation went a step further and commissioned a blog post written by Maria Vetrano titled, "LGBTQIA+ Visibility and Acceptance in the Chip Industry.".

The blog post was enlightening, to say the least, and it inspired us to learn more about how those of us in the semiconductor industry can be better allies and accomplices to our LGBTQ+ colleagues. To do that, we invited Maria and SEMI Foundation's Michelle Williams-Vaden to join us in a conversation. 

If you have more questions, we invite you to reach out to Michelle at SEMI Foundation: mwilliams@semi.org,  and/or Maria Vetrano on Linked In. 

If you'd like to learn more about some of the organizations mentioned in this episode, visit their websites:

SEMI Foundation
Outright Action International
GLSEN
Human Rights Campaign
The Trevor Project

Click here to learn more about how 3D InCites is supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the semiconductor industry, and how you can help,

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hi there I'm Francoise Von Trapp. And this is the 3d insights podcast. June was gay

Speaker 2: 0:10

Pride month, and you may have noticed that many companies in the semi industry adapted their logos and created banners for social media and a display of allyship as part of their diversity equity and inclusion efforts for its part semi foundation, decided to go a little further and take a look at the visibility of the LGBTQ community. In the semiconductor industry, they asked a peer expert, Maria of the Toronto to write a blog post about it, and I read it and was really enlightened, um, and thought that it would be great to continue that discussion here on 3d insights podcast, as it also aligns with R D efforts. So I asked Maria to join me, to discuss the article and invited semi foundations, Michelle Vander Williams, to also participate in the discussion to lend their DEI expertise. So first let's start with some introductions. Maria, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to write the article?

Speaker 3: 1:06

Yeah. Hi Francoise, thanks again for this opportunity. Um, so yeah, I'm Maria of a Toronto. I've been a PR person in the tech industry for more than 25 years with a specialty in semiconductors, in memes and sensors. And I do some work with semi foundation. Um, they asked me, uh, what I thought about writing a blog article for semi blog about the LBGTQ plus community in the chip industry. And, uh, I, I thought, wow, what a, this is a cool opportunity and I happily accepted the assignment. So that's how that got started.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Okay. Well, let's get, we'll get back to the content of that a little in a little bit. Um, Michelle, how about you?

Speaker 4: 1:56

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm Michelle Williams Vaden. I am the deputy director at the semi foundation, which I just joined last September. I have a performing arts background and I come from the arts and social justice space, but working at the foundation in an industry where I can spend every day trying to create opportunity to create more equity, diversity, and inclusion within the industry is actually a beautiful fit for what I do. And one of the things that I've always done as part of my work is communications work. And so that's one of the roles that I play at the foundation and how I got connected to them.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Awesome. You know, I, I'm also not, I'm an original semiconductor person. I come from an English and communications background. It's just that I've been in the industry for about 15 years, so, okay. So let's dive into this topic. Let's start with just explaining or defining LGBTQ stands for lesbian gay, bisexual, transgender, and the plus is for other variants. So Maria, can you talk about, um, the blog post, you wrote the process you went through and what that experience was like for you? Yeah,

Speaker 3: 3:04

You bet. Francoise. So I started working on this blog post in March and the biggest part of the task turned out to be finding people to interview. I hadn't realized that going in that even with, you know, personal introductions or knowing people who are a part of the community, who could potentially be a fit for this article, I thought that would, would be enough. But interestingly enough, it wasn't the hustle. The hardest part of the article was finding people to participate in the article. I was very lucky to find one person who's a brilliant quantum computing expert with all this experience in mans early on, who agreed to an interview, which gave me some hope. And then I did a bunch of research, um, online and, you know, found that, uh, some of the bigger semiconductor companies like Lam research, Intel AMD, all had, uh, you know, policies for diversity and inclusion, um, you know, for the, the community. Uh, but, but I have to say that a number of people politely declined, um, or didn't get back to me after, you know, many, many attempts to reach them. So it really taught me that there's a, you know, there is a real sensitivity to exposing yourself in an industry like this one. I think that's a big part of it. It is a more conservative industry, male dominated, you know, more conservative industry, not tons and tons of diversity. And I think that gave a lot of people pause and they were concerned that it would reflect negatively on them. Um, the one person who, who I interviewed early on, uh, told me that, uh, and he does work with, uh, with IBM actually. Um, he said that, you know, this would have no impact on him in the U S but some of his contacts overseas might have some concerns. Now, I don't know that he's heard from anybody yet, but, you know, he said he's much more circumspect when working with people overseas. Um, and just doesn't, you know, doesn't talk about his family, his husband, and their two children. He's more careful. Wow. Well then it's,

Speaker 2: 5:28

Um, you know, that's one of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation is just to raise some awareness around the experience, I guess, um, in some ways, so, you know, so what is the climate like for the community and our industry?

Speaker 3: 5:43

So for the people I interviewed, there was one person who was a very, very senior level technologist who has, you know, patents or name and, um, moved from the east coast to the west coast, to Oregon. And something like 1993 and moved out and was, was thrilled to get domestic partner benefits for herself, her, her partner, and their son at that time. And that made a huge difference in her life. And in the way she felt about that company over the years, she's become increasingly involved in their, um, in their, in, in their ERG, which I think is employee resource group for, for the community. Um, but I have to say that I got the sense that her emotional attachment to her company dates back from what that company did in 1993, you know, for her personally and, you know, and, and that things have continued to evolve at that company. Um, I also talked to a, another, a younger fellow who had a different experience. He used to work for a company in North Carolina in the, in the chip industry and, um, was not out to himself or to others at that point did come out to himself when he was working at that company, uh, would hear, you know, uh, people in kind of water cooler conversations saying disparaging things about people, uh, say the same sex marriage issue was a very much in live debate at that time. Um, it really upset him. And, you know, once he, I guess, came out to his family and to other friends, he was able to be more vocal at work. He did still, you know, there were still people at that office who would laugh, um, when they, you know, sort of, of two men being married. And, uh, he, he moved to the west coast and, uh, well, no, actually he moved to Texas and is incredibly happy this company and is the, the chair of the pride ERG at his company. And he seems like he's tremendously happy, I think in work and in his personal life and in his ability to be represent himself as a whole human being at work. So that's something that, you know, came across from everyone I interviewed. Um, and I, and I, you know, at the beginning of this article, I kind of looked at at, uh, people's perceptions over time by looking at Gallup polls on what people, you know, Americans thought about same-sex marriage, um, years ago, and you know, what they think about it today. And we have seen in the, in the mass culture, you know, far greater acceptance and, and some element of transformation. My sense is that the stomach conductor industry is still, is still behind. And that companies like lamb and Intel and AMD and others that have some of these, these, uh, policies in place, you know, are, are doing a really good job. And, and, you know, their work is, is still cut up, cut out for them.

Speaker 2: 8:48

How has the experience of being LGBTQ plus different than other and other underrepresented minorities in this

Speaker 3: 8:57

Industry? I'm not a person of color. So unfortunately I cannot represent the experience of a person of color. All I can say is an observation, is that as a lesbian, for example, I would, I've chosen to be out or not be out, you know, at work when I, you know, especially years ago when that was more of a big deal for me when I was in my twenties, um, I live in a bubble. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So it's one of those bubbly places where it's not so much of an issue, but, uh, I, I think that the ability to, to choose whether you're visible or not does make it make being, you know, a member of this particular or these communities different from being a person of color or a woman, another unrepresentative group in semiconductors. Right. So you're, if you appear to be a woman and you, and you identify as such you're underrepresented, um, Michelle, what do you see at semi foundation? Um, what have you experienced in this area there?

Speaker 4: 10:07

So the semi foundation over the last six or eight months has been undergoing a great deal of research and trying to uncover there's, there's a fair amount of data, uh, in the tech industry about diversity and representation. We've not been able to find sort of gold standard, you know, not all companies report, you know, the, the way that we've identified, you know, the number of LGBTQ individuals or people of color in the industry is more of an aggregating large company data versus, you know, industry wide data. And then we, you take it down to the semiconductor level and we even have even less clear data. And so, uh, just the fact that this is not being reported on as thoroughly as it should be, uh, is sort of a first flag because you can't change what you don't know and you can't change what you haven't studied. Uh, so we recently did an internal investigation on what does representation look like at semi? How does that compare with what we can figure out about the industry? And then how does that compare with, um, the general public? Uh, so that was just a really interesting process and all of that's going to be published in the coming weeks. Um, you know, it's been surprising to me coming from an arts and social justice background, where there is there's so much work still to be done in, in equity and diversity and inclusion, but, uh, but it's, uh, that those worlds are further along, you know, so I was frankly surprised, um, you know, by the lack of female colleagues, certainly the lack of, uh, people of color who are colleagues and then knowing almost nobody who represented LGBTQ in, in this engineering. Yes, I'm new to it. But, um, I seek out, you know, as I, as I want to broaden my own horizons and it's, it's been a challenge. So that's been really interesting to know what we're hoping to do is shed a light on what we don't know, so we can start creating better practices.

Speaker 2: 12:04

So what can the straight community do to be better allies to their LGBTQ peers? I think it's important for

Speaker 4: 12:12

Us to just define what an ally is. So in this context, an ally is a Strait and, or a cis-gender person who supports and advocates for LGBTQ plus people. And, you know, there are many very simple ground level ways to be a great ally, uh, be a listener, cultivate being, open-minded be willing to talk about things, be inclusive, um, of folks that, you know, to be LGBTQ plus. Um, but then it gets deeper than that even, uh, you know, when you hear anti LGBTQ plus comments to call those out, to encourage people, to, um, recognize that some of the language they may be using is inappropriate, even things they're used to saying from a years past of just being really aware of language and treatment, um, standing up for your colleagues in the workplace who might be victims of microaggressions of even just the smallest comments. There's a lot about confronting our own biases and, and knowledge, you know, ideas that we may have held that we really need to challenge as we understand, um, how, you know, everyone should be able to identify, however they identify and to use respectful language and to encourage respectful language, um, around that, you know, there's another piece of allyship that is more internal, which is if you have questions about the LGBTQ LGBTQ plus movement or individuals not to go straight to say your gay friend, right. Uh, to start doing the research on your own, you'd never want to ask anyone to, uh, have to justify how they, uh, how they identify, how they exist, or even to go through their, you know, to relive any trauma they might've experienced. So there are many, many resources online. Uh, many companies have, uh, staff members who are dedicated to this work DEI, uh, staff members and whatnot. So to, to spend time educating yourself on anything that you're curious about, and then standing up for your friends and colleagues, uh, in any other social contexts, you might come across,

Speaker 3: 14:27

You know, you bring up a really good point because I think about this personally, um, I think, well, first of all, we know this is a fairly conservative industry and we've talked about that. Um, but also many of the people in this industry are over the age of 50. And we have come of age, I guess, in a time where being gay or trans went from being something that we were taught was, you know, those of us who were straight, we were taught maybe that it wasn't an okay thing. And we have learned, and that the language has changed. What was acceptable language 10 years ago is no longer acceptable terminology is now considered microaggressions. And I think there could be some sort of educational element around that. I also think the younger generations are so much more woke for lack of a better word to how to behave. And I've learned so much from my own children, which is kind of ironic because the idea was to raise them to be accepting and open, and that this wasn't something to question or be concerned about. Um,

Speaker 2: 15:39

And to be allies, I raised my children to be allies and I was always considered myself to be an ally, but there's definitely an educational element to that. Um, yeah. So thank you for that. And what about companies? Um, what can companies be doing to promote ally allies and maybe to, to educate, um, offer education for their straight or cis-gender company members?

Speaker 4: 16:09

Absolutely. I mean, so it should be embedded in any company's greater DEI efforts. There often is a lot of focus on gender and race, but there are a lot of LGBTQ plus individuals in our industry and, uh, and not a lot of them are out, so to speak. Not a lot of them live, uh, feel comfortable being their true selves within our industry. So there are, uh, many strategies within a DEI framework that can be employed. It's everything from trainings that include, uh, what microaggressions might look like to someone who represents the community, um, to, uh, providing benefits that, you know, that welcome the entire family, um, to, uh, to including in any workplace harassment, um, trainings that, that, you know, that, that it, that harassment can go from any, from any person who identifies in any way to any other person who identifies in any other way. So making sure that even the trainings themselves are inclusive as well. So it just needs to be part of the greater DEI strategy. I think one of the most important things to be done of course, is that work around pronouns and encouraging a company-wide practice of I, of having pronouns on email signatures are on zoom calls and whatnot to normalize the sharing of pronouns. So those who might identify in ways that others might not be used to, or might unexpect and not expect, feel

Speaker 3: 17:38

Comfortable in doing so. The

Speaker 4: 17:40

Other thing though, that I want to talk about is being an accomplice. So I like to think about allyship and, uh, being an accomplice in the same way that I think about mentorship versus sponsorship. Uh, and what I mean by that is, you know, when you're a mentor, you are a thought partner and you provide guidance and you provide support. And when you're a sponsor, the idea is that you're using your positional power to further someone else's career or movement along. So it's, you, you actually have a personal risk. You have a personal stake when you're a sponsor versus versus a mentor. And, you know, I think sponsorship is so important in this industry and in the same way that that being an ally is, is incredibly important. Um, but the idea, and I know that being an accomplice has a negative connotation, you know, for its use in the justice system and everything, but it's been sort of taken back by the social justice movement. So it's assisting someone else in a way that creates a space of inclusion and equity and safety sometimes at your own risk, uh, your own social risk or professional standing or, or, or, or even your wellbeing. You know, I think about in black lives matter protests, there were some images of the wall of white moms, uh, that were, you know, standing in front of armed people, uh, standing in solidarity and putting their own body in the line of fire, like quite literally as a way of being accomplices. And that was very moving to me, uh, because it was such a show of, you know, we're not just going to sit back and retweet stuff and, you know, um, talk about diversity, we're going to take to the streets. And, and I know as a white person that my personal safety, you know, is, is not at risk as others, you know, who identify in other ways, in the context of, of our industry, it is speaking up, um, in situations where it might be surprising for you to do so. It is, um, you know, turning down an opportunity and saying, I'm not appropriate for this, but these other, these other people may be, I mean, there's so many different ways to both be an ally and an accomplice. And I think it's important to think about, um, how each of us can contribute to creating greater equity and inclusion. So can

Speaker 2: 19:56

We talk about pronouns? Um, again, because I personally have, um, from my position as an interviewer, I have been told by younger generations that it is my job to make sure that I, anybody, I interview anybody that I make sure that I know what their pronouns are. I mean, how does a PR, how does someone address it appropriately? Who

Speaker 3: 20:24

Can give us a wonderful quote for the, the article that I wrote for semi foundation as an ally. Um, Karen Lightman, who is works for, um, is the executive director for Metro 21, which is part of Carnegie Mellon. She's the former executive director of memes and sensors industry group. She told me that, uh, how important it was for her to use her pronouns, her signature, she heard now people will come to you and they will say, um, they them, or, you know, they they're. So I think you probably shouldn't worry about it might make people uncomfortable to ask them, uh, which pronouns you want them to use, because if you asked me that, I'd say, well, you know, I'm wearing earrings. Like, you know, I would have some kind of a response to that. So I think that, um, people will, will tell you, is it helpful to

Speaker 2: 21:17

Identify your own pronouns as a lead in, in that way?

Speaker 4: 21:21

I like that practice. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I think leading with your own pronouns without expectation is a great way to go. I think it's also something that as companies and at events we can normalize, you know, in the arts world and again, very different world, but a lot of times the name tags will have, you know, she, her, they them, or, you know, whatever it may be. And so it's already there. And I think the more, you know, the more we just see it, the more it becomes natural, but I think by just leading without expectation, um, is a great way to go. And then, you know, also listening and working, because it can be very difficult to, to, uh, be consistent with, with pronouns that perhaps are not used to. Um, so, uh, and there's w I think there's one last thing about pronouns that I'd like to say that when you mis-gender someone and we've all done, I certainly, you know, I've done it a lot. I have a, um, my brother's child is trans and I mis-gender them all the time, but I don't apologize. I just do better because when you apologize, it makes them feel like they have to make you feel okay about you. Like mis-gendering. So it's just being in the practice of like, he, they, they, they, you know, so I think, uh, I think just leading with the pronoun and inviting it, but not necessarily pointing out might be a good way to go.

Speaker 2: 22:45

So, um, I think maybe the last point I'd like to discuss here, it kind of brings us back full circle to the fact that we are, we are, um, producing this as a, an honor of gay pride month. You know, are we being authentic, is the companies that are celebrating gay pride month with social media posts and, and banners. Are they practicing what they preach or are they just jumping in? They want to appear to be in support because it's a market it's a good marketing tactic. Um, even worse than that, to me would be companies who are waving the rainbow flag, but behind the scenes are making donations, um, to anti-gay packs. And we, you know, there's been some literature out about that. Um, Maria, can you talk a little bit more about that? I know you've done a little bit of research around that.

Speaker 3: 23:38

So I think that many companies are paying lip service to pride month because kind of the thing to do. And it's like the, you know, it's the, the pink ribbon in October and the, you know, the pride flag and, uh, in June, um, you know, I've seen things change so much over the years, uh, to where, you know, w w my, my first pride parade was probably 1987 and it was very, very political, and we certainly didn't have all kinds of corporate sponsors, um, you know, flying rainbow flags and putting them, you know, uh, integrating them with their logos, that kind of thing. So that's changed dramatically. Um, what, what is interesting, and, and as a, as a consumer, as an investor, what I would encourage people to do is look at where you invest your own money or spend your own money and make sure that those companies aren't donating, uh, money to politicians who get a low rating from the human rights campaign fund, which is an advocacy group. So you can do this research yourself. And, uh, you may be surprised to find that some of those companies that you frequent and services that you purchase are actually, you know, have these they're pride promotions, but that are being disingenuous in the sense that they're also giving money to politicians who are advocating against LGBTQ plus people. And in fact, the kind of the new, uh, biggest target, uh, is, are trans people right now. You know, we see that in, in many cases. So I'd say, do your research, um, some of these companies may be giving money on both sides of the aisle, and some of them may not, but in terms of, um, on a more positive bent, there are companies that are, that are doing a good job in terms of cause marketing. So, um, one of those is Levi's, which is a great American brand, and they have, um, a pride collection where it's all kinds of, you know, clothing and hats and, and other, other, um, items of apparel. And they're donating 100% of their net proceeds to outright action international, which works to advance LGBTQ plus rights around the world. Um, Disney is, uh, has a special, uh, well, they have all kinds of rainbow pride clothing. And I was there last week and saw some of this apparel, but they are not the only organization, but one, one of many who give money to glisten, which is, um, an organization that is for, for students. So helps students feel safer and more supportive, um, at school. And, uh, Chipola has, I think the most fun promotion where they have, uh, they hired three drag Queens that are better graduates from, uh, Ru Paul's drag race. So really famous drag drag superstars, including Trixie Mattel, and each of these three drag Queens has designed their own Chipotle meal, um, so that you can go to Chipotle, uh, during the month of June, you can order these different meals. And$1 from each order will go to the charity of that drag Queens choice, which includes a trans rights human rights campaign and the Trevor project, which is a organization that's focused on youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention. And I think that that is so incredibly important because what we do know is that, uh, teens who identify as LGBTQ plus are far more likely than cis-gender heterosexual teens to attempt suicide commit suicide, um, and end up homeless and, or end up homeless. So they're very at risk community, and we really need to, to take this seriously. I think these are the most among the most vulnerable populations that we have right now. So I say, you know, put your money where your mouth is, and don't just wave the flag. So perhaps, um, some of the semiconductor companies could tear a page out of the playbook of consumer focused companies when it comes to cause marketing. Yeah, I think that would be fantastic. I think it would be also great for executives as some of these companies to include their, their chosen, uh, pronouns in their signatures. You know, something like that makes a big difference because it's sometimes a, you know, a culture of a company is designed at, you know, from the top and it comes from the top down and permeates the rest of the, the institution. Um, and they, you know, they could do something special for pride. Wouldn't be difficult. Michelle, did you want to add anything to that?

Speaker 4: 28:42

I do. You know, um, Maria, I just love all of the examples that you just gave. And I think all of those examples are actually the best examples of companies being accomplices. Now we talked about allyship and accomplice ship, uh, and these are companies that are putting at risk. They're at risk. I put that in quotes, their brands, their profits, um, cause they believe this to be so important and perhaps they've done the market research and they know that it's going to be a net positive, but what a wonderful world that, that would now be a net positive because 10, 20 years ago it wouldn't have been right. But that is, that is a evidence of a company putting a personal stake, you know, their, their profits and their reputations on the line to support the LGBTQ plus community. And, um, I think that's extraordinary.

Speaker 3: 29:30

Um, do

Speaker 2: 29:30

You think that some of the companies making donations to the packs are not fully aware that they are anti-gay or anti-trans, or that they're making a choice based on what the other things that they support matter more to them and would they be if they were aware of it or if they thought about it a little bit more, that they would be a better accomplice by not making that donation, even if it meant risking the other element that they're interested in supporting it's probably

Speaker 4: 30:02

Yeah. Different by the company. I'm a Maria I'd love your thoughts on this, but I'm sure there are some companies who are really trying to pay attention to the whole picture and others that, uh, may be, so hyper-focused on a specific issue that the importance of anything else, um, might fall to the wayside.

Speaker 3: 30:19

Yeah, I do think it depends on the individual company. I would say that there are some companies who feel strong and organizations who feel strongly about LGBTQ plus that they will make changes in business operations. For example, the NBA is a good example. Um, they, uh, there were some kind of, um, anti-trans legislation that was approved by the state house in North Carolina and they pulled their, um, I think it was their all stars game out of, out of North Carolina. Um, there was also a major, a major media company. I think it was Netflix that said they weren't going to produce, you know, TV shows or film TV shows or, or, or, um, movies in Georgia because of some kind of anti LGBTQ plus legislation that had been approved in Georgia. Um, so I think that's incredibly meaningful. So boy, those, you know, if those organizations want to, you know, fly their pride flags and they absolutely should. I think that that's, you know, that that just shows you how they are approaching things from, uh, from the, from a full circle. I think at least as consumers, we can pay attention to what companies are doing and not going, doing, and be allies and accomplices by choosing which companies to support. And if we really want to be strong about it, we don't support the companies that are speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Yep. And there are some companies that have long and positive track records. All right.

Speaker 2: 31:54

Well, I think that's a great place to stop and I really do appreciate both of you joining me for this conversation. I think it's a really important conversation to have so important and that we are publishing this, um, and the aftermath of gay pride month. So, um, cause we think, you know, why not celebrate gay pride all year long? That's right. Um, one last bit. If someone wanted to learn more or, uh, get in touch with you for any particular reason, um, how should they reach you? Michelle

Speaker 4: 32:31

I'm Michelle Williams Vaden. My email at the semi foundation is M Williams, uh, at semi.org.

Speaker 2: 32:40

Okay, awesome. And Maria, my name

Speaker 3: 32:42

Is Maria Tronto and a link. I think LinkedIn would be a good place to find me. I think I'm pretty easy to find there. So just message me on LinkedIn and I will get back to you. Great. And I will include that information in the show notes for now. That's it for this particular conversation and the hope to talk to you guys again soon. Thank you. Thank you for us was bye-bye bye-bye

Speaker 1: 33:08

There's lots more to come. So tune in next time on the 3d insights podcast.