Founding oSTEM: trailblazing for LGBTQA+ communities

This chapter uses a retrospective lens to highlight cultural factors affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and allied (LGBTQA+) communities, focusing on a community-based intervention that advances LGBTQA+ people in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. Within these fields, there is a dearth of both metrics and resources supporting people with sexual and gender minority identities. Over the last two decades, the 501(c)(3) non-profit, oSTEM (Out in STEM) Incorporated, was created to help address these lapses, and it continues to broadly advance LGBTQA+ people in STEM. The oSTEM leadership cultivated a community of skilled and diverse people, building bridges across identities while celebrating differences, and the community includes both students and professionals from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and beyond. In 2012, oSTEM collaborated to produce the first quantitative study on Factors Impacting the Academic Climate for LGBQ STEM Faculty (Patridge et al. 2014). To date, oSTEM has coordinated more than ten annual conferences, reaching hundreds of chapters and thousands of people. The collective efforts of oSTEM align with the sentiment of “unity through diversity.”