LBGT@SoftEng Lunch

Wednesday, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM (Governor's Boardroom; first pick up your lunch in State ABC)

Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered, Intersexual, and Questioning (LBGTIQ) researchers and practitioners primarily come to software engineering conferences to discuss technical aspects of their work with the research community. But we are people, too, whose rights and safety are sometimes affected by the political climate at the host venue. This year, North Carolina's passage of HB2 (widely known as the law restricting the rights of transgendered individuals to use the bathrooms of their choice) has added significant worry to LBGTIQ individuals who may have felt unsafe or unwelcome to participate in ICSME 2016. At this year's first-of-its-kind Birds of a Feather session, LBGTIQ researchers, practitioners, and friends are invited to lunch together in a safe place and build community. We will also discuss the current political climate, how issues like North Carolina’s HB2 law should be addressed by conference organizers in the future, and what we can do it to help make all software engineering conferences to be safe and welcoming spaces for LBGTIQ members of the software engineering research community.

— Organized by Andrew Begel and Alexander Serebrenik