While often touted as progressive, Canada’s tech industry has, until now, lacked the data to back up its claims - particularly in regards to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. With non-profit QueerTech’s release of Queering the Tech Ecosystem: Barriers and Opportunities—the first research report targeting the queer experience in Canadian tech—that progressive picture is largely questioned by the data compiled. We sat down with QueerTech’s Co-Founder Naoufel Testaouni to talk about not-so-ancient history, the impact of quantifying the queer experience in tech and finding the good news in hard numbers and first steps.

Key Takeaways:

• QueerTech’s, first-of-its-kind Queering the Tech Ecosystem: Barriers and Opportunities research report details the disparities and systemic dysfunctions affecting the queer community in Canadian tech—as well as offering recommendations to affect positive change.
• The primary challenges facing queer and other underrepresented talent in the workplace are two-fold: a lack of education and historic biases.
• With queer talent accounting for six to 8 percent in Canada tech and dropping to well below one percent representation at the leadership level, mentorship and sponsorship are key to truly fostering diversity.
  

When QueerTech’s Co-Founder Naoufel Testaouni first created a Montreal MeetUp group in 2016, he had no greater motive than one we all share—to feel he belonged at work.

He certainly hadn’t imagined the response or where it would lead.

“Everyone wonders why QueerTech was created. What it really came down to for me was the fact that Montreal was a great tech ecosystem, but the one thing that was missing was people like me in that ecosystem. I went to events and sat on panels, but it was that lack of belonging that was daunting for me because I would show up to these places and not see any other queer people there,” said Naoufel. “Back in 2011, I didn’t even see other people of colour or women there. It was an ecosystem that was thinking about diversity, but there was not much really happening there.”

That changed in 2016 from the moment Naoufel’s MeetUp went live, giving rise to the creation of QueerTech in 2018 which grew exponentially in the virtual era of the pandemic.

QueerTech’s ongoing mission most recently hit a major milestone with the release of the team’s first-of-its-kind research report quantifying the 2SLGBTQIA+ experience in the workplace—Queering the Tech Ecosystem: Barriers and Opportunities.

Releasing just days before QueerTech’s May Leadership Summit in Toronto, the report not only quantifies the lived experience of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canadian tech, but paves the way for better workplace futures with insights and recommendations. The research initiative, three years in the making, included a base national sampling of 254 survey respondents, 30 interviewees, and a holistic literature review which captured existing information pertinent to the overall topic of queer inclusion in the workplace.

“When we looked at overall representation, we looked to the TAP Network and their reports. From their numbers on the community, we are looking at representation of about 6-8 percent,” said Naoufel, noting this may actually be a bit higher than the national average since the data was drawn from the progressive memberships of the TAP Network and QueerTech.

Where those representation figures plunge is in the executive arena—and vanish almost entirely with intersectionality factored.

“When we go up the ladder to leadership and executive roles, the reality is harder to see since representation of queer people is under one percent—somewhere between 0.3 and 0.6 percent. Again, when you look at data in the US and try to benchmark, due to the US market being somewhat similar to Canada, we still see that lack of representation at the leadership level,” said Naoufel. “Then, when you look at intersectionality in that representation, the number drops even more drastically. Queer women representation is even lower than that of cisgender women. The numbers really just keep going down when we look at multiple layers of oppression.”

As for the findings, the executive summary alone reveals the ongoing challenges faced by the queer community to a greater degree than their non-queer counterparts. From queer experiences in tech and acquiring employment, to a climate inventory and gaps check, a glimpse of the highlights is telling of the systemic disconnects and misaligned inclusion efforts:

• Non-queer respondents were significantly more likely to feel safe being themselves at work (89%) versus queer respondents (70%).
• Harassment at work is a significant challenge for respondents, with 20% of respondents being targeted due to their ancestry or national origin, nearly 35% due to their sexual orientation, and over 56% due to their gender identity.
  
• While over a third of non-queer individuals (38.3%) found the atmosphere for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees was improving significantly at work, less than a quarter of queer individuals thought the same (24.4%)
• Over 35% of respondents have experienced discrimination during at least one job interview. Another 9.5% think they have, but can’t be sure.
  
• Nearly 70% of respondent workplaces have EDI initiatives. Only 24% find them very effective.

Despite the figures, Naoufel points to the positives, primary of which is now having demographically benchmarked data to reflect and act upon in coming years.

“You look at this report and the numbers—it can be discouraging. ‘Oh my gosh, 50 percent of people still feel discriminated against in the interview process. 40 percent of people are facing discrimination in the workplace’. You hear all these discouraging numbers,” said Naoufel. “But the reality is we ARE making progress.”

Just not the kind of overnight progress people think.

“A lot of people feel that since same sex marriage became legal in Canada in 2005, that that was mission accomplished. It was a big step, but it was step zero,” said Naoufel. “The reality is that, until recently, it was still illegal to be gay and still is in a lot of countries. Up until 2019, WHO still deemed transgender individuals as having a mental illness. In 2021, conversion therapy was still a legal practice in Canada. We’re talking about recent history.”

Even more recent, Naoufel points out, is the rise of hate crimes against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community—up 64 per cent between 2020 and 2021 alone.

“One of the many outcomes of this discrimination against the queer community is a complete lack of sufficient data needed to actualize informed, positive change,” said Naoufel. “Why would governments, institutions and decision makers bother collecting information on a community that - for all of Canada’s history until very recently - were systematically persecuted and seen as deviant, ‘others’ of society?”

“The biggest challenge we have had as a community is that until today, there has been no benchmark of data that is complete about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada. Until this moment—and this is why the research was kick started—we have not had that data. Now we do, and we are working at doing more,” said Naoufel, who continues to marvel at the growth of the QueerTech community, now numbering over 9,000 members and 200+ corporate and non-profit partners.

More than ever, that growth is pushing in a positive direction for not just the queer tech community, but underrepresented talent groups across the industry.

“Despite all the challenges, there are a lot of amazing things happening. The industry has mobilized towards creating different ways to improve DEI within the space,” said Naoufel. “We see companies looking at how they source candidates with the goal of diversifying more, reviewing their interview practices and language use, and internally creating employee resource groups to explore how to support this community and give queer voices a platform within the company—a space where they can contribute to, and drive, the conversation.”

As for how leaders can begin addressing some of the common barriers to success compiled in the “Queering the Tech Ecosystem: Barriers and Opportunities” research report, Naoufel points to two foundational pillars to remember when conducting any corporate inclusion efforts —addressing the lack of education in the industry, and contextualizing the biases that continue to exist within our workplaces. Beyond these all-encompassing foundations, inclusion work must consider all aspects of the typical employment journey:

1. We start with EDI and HR policies. “You want to have a clear path to understanding and managing what is happening in your organization. You want to have a clear sexual harassment policy. You want to have a clear discrimination policy. You should have a way for people to report microaggressions and all the things that they see and experience, because that is the first step for you to know what is really happening,” said Naoufel.
   
   Noting that not every company has Microsoft or Google-sized in-house supports for this work, Naoufel drove home the importance of bringing in specialized education via QueerTech or a similar organization to help any-sized business thrive.
   
   
2. Next—think of best practices and culture. “We’re all working hard to increase diversity, but some companies might only have one person of colour or one queer person. Similarly, your interview panel might be three cisgender, white men -you might want to diversify that panel when there is a woman or person of colour sitting down to interview with your company,” said Naoufel, while cautioning against tokenizing your in-house talent.
   
   “A lot of our community members tell us that when you are that one queer or black person at a company, people consistently come to see them as a resource for that community. This education suddenly becomes their responsibility,” said Naoufel, who points out this often leads to talent departing. “Remember, not everyone wants to be an advocate at the workplace. Not everyone wants to be fighting the fight. Some people just want to do their work and go home. So don’t put the burden on these individuals - you need to retain them in order to advance their careers.
   
   
3. Ultimately—we need to grow leaders. Once you have that and underrepresented talent wants to stay, then companies need to think about the things that were a major focus at our Future Leaders Summit— like creating not only a mentorship program, but a sponsorship program,” said Naoufel. “We see that there is talent that is driven and want to move up. Okay, then let’s look at the successful leaders who exist already, pair them up and help pave a path for that talent because there are a lot of systemic barriers and we need leaders to remove them.

While a three-point plan is sufficient in starting the conversation surrounding queer inclusion at work, Naoufel places an even higher value on the detailed road map outlined within the report itself.

“These are a few high level ideas, but we go far deeper in the report. We have full recommendation sections for academia, HR professionals, tech companies and politicians because we want them to start thinking on the same page. There are a lot of things that you can do tomorrow to start affecting the change we are trying to drive today,” said Naoufel.

As for where today’s numbers may lead, Naoufel is confident the only direction is up—with QueerTech’s vision including 20 percent representation of queer people in tech, and five percent representation at the leadership level.

Whether those figures paint a realistic expectation or not is secondary to the greater goal of inspiring talent and tech leaders alike.

“The reason we set these goals is because they work to continuously drive industry diversity and inclusion. If we do that, we’ll help tech companies become not only more diverse, but more innovative, better problem solvers and more profitable,” said Naoufel. “So, let’s increase that diversity and strive to reach 20 percent. That’s a vision that we will always work towards because, while the goal is to increase overall representation, said representation is only achievable if we simultaneously see the holistic professional advancement of this community. We want to see more queer people enter tech, but we also want to see more queer people in leadership and decision making roles within the sector.”

The sheer number of companies and executives gathering for both the QueerTech Leadership Summit and Tech Talent North prove two things—the recognition of the dividends of diversity is only growing and the industry interest and support is already there.

Now the data is too.