Happy Pride from Jama Software

As Jama Software celebrates Pride Month with our current, former, and future LGBTQ+ employees, we’re feeling extra excited. We just heard the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 6-3 decision that federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination. That’s the way it should it be.

Jama Software remains committed to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We make a conscious, concerted effort every day. We know we have more work to do, and we’ll stay focused where it matters: in board rooms, staff meetings, job interviews, and personal conversations. We’ve also re-upped our pledge to the Portland Tech Diversity Pledge through TechTown PDX.

We can’t hold our usual in-person Pride festivities to honor the LGBTQ+ community in our offices and beyond. Instead, our internal culture team has been hosting virtual Pride awareness meetings, we’ve been watching TedTalks, and having meaningful, open discussions. In addition, we’re making a donation to the non-profit New Avenues for Youth, a sexual and gender minority youth center resource center (SMYRC) dedicated to the prevention and intervention of youth homelessness.

Let’s share Pride recommendations.

This year Pride arrives in the midst of what feels like a watershed moment for the world, one where more people than ever are willing to stop, listen, learn, contribute, and take action if they can. To honor this moment and our LGBTQ+ community, we’ve posted a Pride Recommendation List on our internal site, where employees can share books, graphic novels, films and TV shows, podcast, websites, music, and nonprofits that speak to LGBTQ+ experiences.

We’d like to share that list with you now. Help us by adding more to it. You can reach out to us on LinkedIn. The best we can all do is continue to enlighten each other, and act where and when we can.

Happy Pride everyone. Hopefully next year, we can have the party this month deserves!

Pride Recommendation List (so far):

Books:

Recommend reading list from Powell’s featuring local authors (Portland)
Pride reading list from BookRiot feature 14 of the best queer books.

Graphic Novels:

Film/Television Shows:

Stonewall Forever: A Documentary about the Past, Present, and Future of Pride.

Websites:

2020 Virtual Pride Guide

Non-Profits:

SMYRC – Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (Portland)
COC Amsterdam – largest advocacy and support group in the Netherlands
Out In Tech – non-profit that unites the LGBTQ+ tech community
Solutions Not Punishment – builds power of Black, trans, and queer people to force systemic divestment from the prison industrial complex and invest in community support
Black AIDS Institute – working to end the Black HIV epidemic through policy, advocacy, and high-quality direct HIV services
Trans Culture District – the world’s first-ever legally recognized trans district, which aims to stabilize and economically empower the trans community
House of GG – creating safe and transformative spaces for community to heal, and nurturing them into tomorrow’s leaders, focusing on trans women of color in the South
Trans Justice Funding Project – community-led funding initiative too support grassroots trans justice groups run by and for trans people
LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund – posts bail for LGBTQ+ people held in jail or immigrant detention and raises awareness of the epidemic of LGBTQ+ over-incarceration
The Okra Project – collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black trans people by bringing home-cooked meals and resources to the community
Youth Breakout – works to end the criminalization of LGBTQ+ youth in New Orleans to build a safer and more just community
TGI Justice Project – a group of transgender, gender variant, and intersex people—inside and outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom
Princess Janae Place – provides referrals to housing for chronically homeless LGBTQ+ adults in the New York Tri-state area, with direct emphasis on Trans/GNC people of color
Transgender Law Center – changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression
Trans Women of Color Collective – exists to create revolutionary change by uplifting narrative, leadership, and lived experience of trans people of color

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