Earlier this month, LGBT Tech's PowerOn Program Manager Ellie Bessette was appointed to a two-year term on the Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC). The Committee, according to the FCC, "provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on a wide array of consumer matters specified by the Commission," including technology.
Ellie Bessette is the first LGBT Tech team member to be appointed to the CAC, and the third to be appointed more generally to an FCC committee. LGBT Tech's Deputy Director and General Counsel Carlos Gutierrez serves on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, and Executive Director Christopher Wood currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment.
Research shows that technology is indispensable to the LGBTQ+ community: 80 percent of LGBTQ+ people network online, and 81 percent of LGBTQ+ youth use the internet to search for health information. Given the important role tech plays for LGBTQ+ individuals - and the important role LGBTQ+ people play as tech consumers - LGBT Tech is proud to represent our community's technological needs and perspectives before the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC's original announcement can be found here.