TransTech CEO Increases Trans Visibility in the Technology World
"I discovered my path to independence through technology as well as the potential for a global lifeline for trans people around the world who were looking for the same."
Life for those in marginalized communities has never been easy. A road filled with roadblocks and barriers that have seen its members left behind when it comes to creation and innovation. Lack of training, lack of access, and workplace discrimination have all contributed to creating barriers to long-lasting business, financial and career success.
Dominated by men, the technology field has continued to be elusive to many. The lack of diversity within the field has propagated the fallacy that to work in IT – you must be White and male. TransTech Social founder and Chief Executive Officer, Angelica Ross, is working to change that.
Founded in 2014, TransTech provides free training, education, and resources to transgender job seekers in an effort to help them not only attain but maintain employment in the IT sector.
“Trans people, especially trans people of color, have not routinely had a lot of access to technology,” she told TechCrunch. “When you drop out of school because of harassment or get kicked out of your home, [you miss out on] basic skills with data entry, Microsoft Office, Google Docs.”
An African-American transgender woman, Angelica Ross knows firsthand the harm a toxic work environment and lack of family support can have on the mental health of LGBTQ+ community members. After coming out as gay in high school, she was rejected by her mother.
After suffering brutal hazing during a six-month stint in the Navy, the Kenosha, Wisconsin native traveled from city to city looking for stability and a life where she could be herself.
The tech entrepreneur even resorted to sex work to make ends meet before teaching herself website design by watching video tutorials online.
“One of the most effective ways to help marginalized communities is through providing economic opportunities,” community activist and ally Joanie Juster said.
“I didn't want to play in the dirt outside with the boys. We have to learn to be allies to each other. We are in a deficit of financial and social capital, and TransTech aims to help trans people reverse that. Being trans comes at a high cost, but being black and trans can cost you your life.”
But the TransTech CEO isn’t alone in wanting to bridge the technology gap between her community and the IT world.
Brazilian EducaTRANSforma founder, Noah Scheffel, is also working to give community job seekers the tools necessary to succeed in the IT sector.
Though many companies have Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies on the books – enforcing them isn’t always easy. The importance of reaching out to employers is paramount to ensure they’re committed to, not only increasing trans visibility at their companies but protecting the dignity of those employees once hired.
“One of the most effective ways to help marginalized communities is through providing economic opportunities. Giving someone a job isn’t enough; making sure they have the training, skills, and support to enter the workforce with the confidence and ability to do the job well is key to their long-term success. And that is exactly what TransTech Social is doing.” Angelica Ross, TransTech CEO
Meet the Angelica Ross
Angelica Ross in 2020. Photo courtesy of CNET
Fired from her job after transitioning. Shunned by family and friends left the TransTech CEO with few options. After working in the sex industry to make ends meet, the entrepreneur taught herself to design websites before embarking on what would not just be a career – but, a calling.
“I discovered most programs to be inadequate, as well as re-traumatizing and re-triggering for our population, as many of the programs just undervalue, underestimate and pigeonhole our community into very low expectation positions — you know, food service and manual labor without any sort of development for us to reach for anything else beyond that.”
For over seven years, TransTech Social has been a safe space for transgender and non-binary members to learn valuable workforce skills that go beyond the job itself. There’s an entire learning library and a partnership with Google.org has created a 10-week curriculum aimed and transgender women of color.
“Technology saved my life,” Ms. Ross told CNET.
Angelica Ross (center) with TransTech members. Photo courtesy of TransTech Social.
Students learn a variety of needed skills like interviewing, negotiating fair and equitable pay, and how to set up a professional LinkedIn profile.
Just three years after TransTech’s founding, the first TransTech Summit drew 100 attendees. The free annual networking event draws people from all areas of the tech industry who want to build relationships and make connections.
Web design, health, and wellness, technology in Hollywood, media marketing, and social justice are just a few of the topics that were addressed at this year’s summit in late March.
“All LGBTQ+ professionals deserve to see themselves as an asset to the industry. With a goal to offer access to tech labs, co-working hubs, and affirming learning events, we will continue to build partnerships and networks that create a pipeline for support and employment opportunities.”
Invited to speak at the White House during the Obama administration Ross shared her voice and her vision with the administration which reportedly vowed to work with the CEO to hire transgender staff.
Meet Noah Scheffel
EducaTRANSforma CEO, Noah Scheffel. Photo courtesy of Forbes
Over 1700 miles and a continent away, former tech manager Noah Scheffel is using his technology education organization, EducaTRANSforma, to help members of Brazil’s transgender community find IT work.
A transgender man, Scheffel started the company after reading a Facebook post by another transgender male.
The Brazilian tech guru is hoping to change the perceptions, and exclusion in the technology world that by training and employing members of the transgender community in his home country.
Scheffel formed the education technology group, EducaTRANSforma, in 2019. By 2022, the company helped 170 members of the community get job offers. But Scheffel’s commitment to a more diverse and inclusive work environment began before his transition.
Using his position as a tech manager, Scheffel worked to create a diverse work environment that was inclusive and safe for new hires despite pushback from the company and his co-workers.
Taking his experience and connections in the sector, Scheffel reached out to those he’d formed relationships with over the years as a tech manager, he was able to raise the money needed to provide education and training to transgender students looking to get a foothold in the IT career sector.
According to the technology entrepreneur, the vast majority of transgender workers in Brazil engage in sex work and put their lives at continuous risk.
Increasing workplace discrimination has left many members of the community feeling unsafe and with few options.
In an interview with Forbes, Scheffel says he was compelled to start the company after reading a post on Facebook from a transgender man who’d been unemployed for several years and was looking for clothes that would make it easier for him to find work in a discriminatory climate by dressing as his pre-transgender sex.
Prior to securing the initial investment, Scheffel himself was in a toxic work environment after transitioning – despite being at the company for a decade. Transphobia is running rampant worldwide, and it’s becoming more difficult for members of the community to find work.
“I was shocked by that situation and decided to do something,” he told Forbes.
Noah Scheffel (far right). Photo courtesy of the Linux Professional Institute
Taken aback by the negative reaction he got from those who have known him for years after he began using a name different from friends, family, and co-workers he’d lived and worked beside most of his life.
This confirmed for Scheffel that the transgender community still had an uphill battle to be recognized in all career fields, not just tech.
Shut out of higher education – less than one percent of those identifying as transgender go to college – and subsequently a higher-paying workforce, the services provided by EdcucaTRANSforma help facilitate opportunities to work in technology.
Though many companies in Brazil have adopted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, it hasn’t stopped discrimination in the workplace.
Despite encouraging words from companies willing to work with Scheffel and EducaTRANSforma to help get transgender workers into the tech field – they weren’t so generous with providing capital.
That’s when the Linux Professional Institute stepped in and provided a much-needed grant. The global IT company contacted other investors to help keep EducaTRANSforma operating when training and operations went fully online because of social distancing measures in Brazil.
Free training was provided by LPI trainers, and refurbishing unwanted computers allowed Scheffel to provide students with access to courses.
Mental healthcare resources are available to those attending EducaTRANSforma to help deal with the trauma that comes with being a part of a marginalized group, and Scheffel believes that the pandemic lockdowns actually help place workers because most of the work was conducted remotely – putting distance between transgender employees and co-workers who may not make their presence uncomfortable
Transgender unemployment is high – with less than five percent of the community working for companies. Overlooked and rejected by banks and investors, those wanting to become business owners we left without the financing needed to forge their own career paths without the fear that comes with unemployment and discrimination.
Technology is constantly changing – and so is the world. But at a time when bigger strides should have been made in the acceptance of the transgender community, things are going backward instead.
Not unlike the United States, in Brazil, violence against the community, has reached peak levels putting those resorting to prostitution to make a living in incredible danger.
Noel Scheffel and the Linux Professional Institute are working hard to keep EducaTRANSforma’s doors open. The optimistic founder hopes to help 10,000 transgender technology hopefuls by 2023.
With less than a week into Pride Month – where we celebrate the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots over five decades ago, and the strides made by the LGBTQ+ and its allies to make the world a safe space for all – we are reminded that there is still a long way to go.
The anti-LGBTQ+ backlash has been swift and fierce.
Old tropes and stereotypical rhetoric used to describe members of the LGBTAQ+ have resurfaced. While others were accepting of the progress, too many were merely tolerating the existence of a community in need of visibility and an ever-present voice.
This has stoked fear – particularly among LGBTQ+ use suicide rates are increasing daily.
The work that Ms. Ross and Mr. Scheffel are doing is important. With the pandemic changing the way many companies do business, working from home is an option that many who may be too afraid to go into the office out of fear of retaliation and harassment have a chance to be a part of an industry that only continues to grow. Giving them a career path that could give members of the transgender community financial – and job – security.
Inclusion – not exclusion – is the way to build a good business, as well as a safe and tolerant community.
Thanks to TransTech Social founder, Angelica Ross, and EducaTRANSforma CEO Noah Scheffel, the transgender community is being given access and an opportunity to change the minds of the gatekeepers of the IT world and give transgender coders, web designers, and marketers a foot in the door of the tech world and inserting and amplifying their visibility and voices into the world information technology.
The World As I See It is a subscription-based newsletter, that relies on the generosity of readers like yourself to keep bringing stories like this to the public. If you enjoyed this story, please consider signing up for a monthly subscription, or making a one-time donation via CashApp or Venmo. Yearly and Founders level subscriptions are also available.
I'm an old white guy who retired from an IT job I had held for almost 20 years. Our programming team was more than 50% women. Were we a rarity? Not in the university community but it was progressive overall. Were there any LGBTQ+ individuals? Probably but no one made it an issue. That's what can be done when people are treated like people and not disposable parts.